Helix
Background to the Research Field
In the high-stakes world of elite sports, gaining a competitive edge often means looking beyond the training pitch. Recognizing that modern team sports demand extraordinary perceptual and cognitive abilities, the TSG ResearchLab, in collaboration with skills.lab, developed the Helix-Arena. The core motivation behind its creation was to diagnose, train, and enhance the cognitive abilities of athletes in a way that traditional methods could not. Most team sport athletes operate in a dynamic 360° environment, where they must process vast amounts of visual information from all directions to make split-second decisions. The Helix-Arena was built to simulate and train for precisely this complex reality.
The Helix-Arena is a cylindrical arena with a seamless 360° projection screen. This innovative setup allows for the creation of immersive virtual environments without the need for VR goggles, which can be cumbersome and disorienting. Inside, an athlete is surrounded by interactive scenarios, from tracking multiple moving objects to reacting to game-like situations. The use of the Helix-Arena is twofold: diagnostics and training. As a diagnostic tool, it can objectively measure an athlete's fundamental perceptual-cognitive skills, such as visual-spatial attention, working memory, and decision-making speed, independent of their specific sport. As a training tool, it provides a platform for targeted interventions designed to improve these cognitive functions.
Projects within the Research Field
We explore perception, attention, and decision-making in environments that reflect the demands of real-world performance. In the Helix Arena, this research ranges from the assessment of cognitive performance in soccer to the development of applied training and analysis tools.
A first example focuses on the assessment of perceptual-cognitive performance in sports. In collaboration with Goethe University Frankfurt, the Helix Arena was used to examine whether immersive 360° tasks can provide a reliable way to measure abilities such as visuospatial attention and working memory. A central task required athletes to track multiple moving objects in a dynamic environment while filtering out distracting information. The findings showed that this approach can be used to assess cognitive performance in a standardized setting. The results also suggested that these abilities become more developed with age and may be especially important in elite youth soccer, where players must process information quickly and act under pressure.
A second example examines tactical learning and decision-making in soccer. Using a newly-developed, FIFA-like game simulation in the Helix-Arena enables us to investigate the effectiveness and possibilities of using VR to test and train perception and decision-making in soccer. When we compared player's gaze behavior and decision-making in the Helix-Arena and in a VR headset, we found that players scanned less in the VR headset. This is probably due to the VR headset limiting players' field of view. However, differences in decision-making quality only existed for central midfielders, who experience the highest perceptual demands playing in the middle of the pitch. By further exploring gaze behavior in soccer via eye tracking technology, we aim to identify what constitutes effective gaze behavior by comparing good and bad decisions.
For training, VR allows us to highlight relevant information – such as open teammates or runs in behind – to guide gaze behavior and potentially improve players' perception and decision-making in crucial moments. After a decision is made, players can receive feedback via an automated machine-learning-powered scoring system that evaluates every passing option based on its risk and reward profile.
