Discover your best self by visualizing stress

Stress is challenging to measure objectively, and can easily accumulate before a person notices it. Even small amounts of stress can cause a decrease in concentration and productivity and result in a significant negative impact on mental health.
NeuralPort is a Kobe-based startup that leverages cutting-edge technology to make hidden stress visible through virtual reality (VR) eye measurement and AI-driven analysis. This unique approach allows the company to visualize stress and develop solutions that support high levels of mental performance.

VR-based stress testing through eye measurements—a pioneering achievement

Accurate measurements of stress levels are essential for determining the degree of an individual’s stress. At present, self-administered questionnaires are often used to assess stress, but it is widely recognized that subjective answers may not accurately reflect a respondent’s mental state, and that arbitrary questions may result in discrepancies with actual stress levels.

For this reason, NeuralPort has focused its development efforts on the close relationship between mental health and eye gaze, resulting in the creation of ZEN EYE PRO, a VR-based software solution that can visualize a user’s stress by measuring their gaze. Assessing stress with ZEN EYE PRO is a straightforward experience: the user simply puts on a headset capable of detecting line of sight, and watches a series of moving images on the VR display for approximately three minutes. NeuralPort’s proprietary AI then calculates the user’s stress levels by analyzing their gaze using quantified measurement data. One advantage of using this gaze-based data is that it can be measured without being consciously influenced by the user and without being impacted by their physical condition.

ZEN EYE PRO represents the world’s first-ever method for using AI to measure stress based on gaze data, and is currently patent pending (as of December 2023; NeuralPort’s own research).

The beta version of ZEN EYE PRO was released in December 2022, and NeuralPort is currently working with baseball players and other professional athletes to accumulate real-world insights in preparation for the product’s full launch in June 2024. Moving forward, the company plans to promote the technology to athletes—followed by astronauts, pilots, and other individuals who require high levels of mental resilience—in order to market and build awareness of this world-leading product among the general public.

In the future, NeuralPort expects to primarily target sports teams and corporations, where the company’s product can be widely deployed to support the mental health and high performance of team members and employees through prompt, accurate identification of individual stress levels.

Experience the feeling of being in the zone through the power of VR-based stress measurement

In addition to ZEN EYE PRO, NeuralPort is also pursuing the development of ZONE-Z, an integrated software and hardware solution that recreates the experience of fully-aligned mental and physical focus, resulting in the feeling of “being in the zone”.

ZONE-Z is a capsule-type machine that scientifically recreates the “zone” state by generating 20 minutes of content that stimulates the five senses. This content, which includes images, sounds and even scents—which are strongly linked to memory—is chosen according to the user's mental state as determined by VR-based stress measurements.

The product also allows users to select relaxation or power nap modes according to their stress levels. These options make the product a compelling solution not only for athletes but also for a broad range of other individuals who are likely to experience high levels of stress, such as executives and entrepreneurs.

ZONE-Z is scheduled to be exhibited at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, where visitors will be able to experience the product’s effectiveness for themselves.

Operating a gym focusing on neuroscience-based stress treatment

In December of 2023, NeuralPort opened Neural Vision Training, a mental and healthcare gym designed to improve wellbeing. * Researchers and physical trainers working at the gym employ state-of-the-art technologies such as AI and VR to measure clients’ psychological and biometric data and provide training that helps boost motivation and support mental health. As it is often said that stress can be reduced by vigorous physical activity, the gym also promotes stress reduction by incorporating exercises that encourage clients to work up a sweat.

*The gym currently provides specialized services tailored primarily to professional athletes and executives, with plans to expand its offerings to the general public in the future.

Strong reception in the U.S. and Europe drives plans for global expansion

To date, NeuralPort’s business and products have enjoyed high acclaim in Europe and the U.S., where interest in mental health care is high. The company plans to expand its business in the U.S. by 2024.

Eye tracking technology and mental wellbeing are currently enjoying a surge in global interest. With its successful business model that focuses on these two themes, NeuralPort is well-positioned to make a uniquely impactful contribution to mental health both within Japan and abroad.