Right now,Valor consists of 10 sensors paired with software that breaks down human motion into comprehensive reports, replays, and numbers. These features give objective measures to any movement whether in the context of health, entertainment, or sports. If you haven’t already, read our story about Valor’s current way to help sports players improve their performance

The main visualization and replay component of Brave runs on Unity, a cross-platform game engine that supports native mobile, web, and extended reality (XR) applications. Right now, Valor integrates seamlessly with mobile phones, meaning that data collected by the sensors show up on the Brave app. By the end of this year, we look forward to connecting Valor with AR glasses and later, VR headsets, to enhance the experience of the user by offering a virtual world to house all of their movement.

VR and AR will add another dimension to motion capture-powered performance improvement: with a VR headset or AR glasses, athletes can view anything they desire in front of them. Golfers can see their club at their side and their previous swing replaying in front of them; basketball players can see the trajectory of their 3-point shot along with their arm and body movement to achieve that shot. Baseball players can replay the swing of their bat in front of them and move their arms alongside the swing for increased practice and muscle memory. Valor combined with XR can grant every athlete the chance to change their idea of the way they interact with a virtual world.

Unity, the game engine which currently supports Valor, provides the tools necessary to create virtual and augmented reality experiences. A VR world in Unity would create an entirely computer-generated environment for athletes to practice in. Although this possibility would lead to new, exciting experiences for users, we anticipate that athletes will prefer sleeker and lightweight AR glasses over bulky VR headsets to practice with.

AR is a practical, easier alternative to VR. Without the need for cameras or an entire virtual world, the user in AR gets to experience elements of their real-life alongside added computer-generated information. Their enhanced perception of reality can support an athlete’s training by displaying their swing or throw in front of themselves so that they can easily trace their previous, practiced movements. The technology will also offer corrections to the athlete in their field of vision so that they can practice new and improved ranges of motion for their swing, hit, or throw. In this way, an athlete’s performance will become significantly better over a shorter period of time.

Valor sees a future home in the brave virtual world of extended reality. As athletes become comfortable using our technology, we hope to introduce them to the Athletaverse as well: a virtual world in which athletes can coexist, compare, and compete.

However before we reach such a world, we recognize that extended reality alone opens up a sea of potential for athletes trying to improve their game; a world Brave will try to harness first. By offering an immersive, corrective experience for athletes, XR is the best way to achieve real results for all athletes looking to improve their performance.