PennApps XII, September 2015. ~18 hours in.

Having found our original augmented reality hack to be overly ambitious given the time that we had, we were searching for a new idea to pivot to. As we were thinking and discussing, a sponsor came over and started talking to us. Before long, we had our new idea: something to help diagnose concussions, based on a person's eyes' responsiveness to motion.

The link between a person's ability to track movement with their eyes and the severity of a traumatic brain injury is well-established. When a doctor moves their finger side-to-side to see whether a patient can follow it, they're trying to see whether the patient's eyes can move in response to stimuli to diagnose a potential brain injury. Studies have verified the relationship between eye movements and concussions as well; for example, see Samadani et al. (2015).

Since commercial equipment to diagnose concussions was already available, we knew our key advantages would have to be cost and portability. We also recognized the advantage to potential victims of concussion that low cost and high portability would bring: access. A coach or trainer can have a $100, Google Cardboard-sized device on the side of the field. They can't have a huge machine that requires special training, lots of electricity, and tens of thousands of dollars. This is especially true in youth sports, where budgets are small and teams often can't afford such expensive equipment as a result.

To give an idea of the severity of the problem, 3.8 million concussions were reported in 2012, double the number reported just a decade before. Approximately one third of the reported concussions from sports happened at a practice, which are unlikely to have medical personnel nearby to diagnose—and this is almost certainly an underestimate, since many concussions in sports go unreported and undiagnosed. Without a diagnosis, people are more likely to suffer repeat concussions, greatly increasing their chance of permanent damage or even death.

As we considered the magnitude of the problem, and the science behind a potential solution, HeadsUp was born.