Wait. What now? I Bet You Have Questions.
Here are answers to the things people ask us all the time.
Whether you want to talk research ideas, nerdy brain stuff, crazy questions or just want to tell us about the weird dream you had last night, we cannot wait to connect.
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The Basics of Immersion
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What is the Immersion Platform?
Immersion is a fully Distributed Neuroscience™platform tracking a unique brain state of attention and emotional resonance. The Immersion platform works anywhere and in real-time. This means researchers can send content to people and collect neurologic data using Immersion's mobile app. You can get real-time, distributed neuroscience using a smartwatch. The best part is that Immersion predicts the market impact of entertainment, training, and advertising with 80% or greater accuracy by measuring what matters: how much the brain values an experience. Immersive experiences drive people to take actions, motivate social sharing, and are easily remembered.
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Where does the technology come from?
The Immersion platform is based on 20 years and $4M of R&D into the neurobiology of human emotional engagement. The work began with digging deeper into the role that the hormone oxytocin plays in trust and social connection (think mother/infant bond, or cuddling a puppy, or as we discovered... almost every interaction humans have when we form some kind of connection), incorporating tools such as functional MRI, high density EEG, blood draws, medical grade biometric tracking, and drug administration. This work was used to trace out the pathways from the peripheral nervous system (nerves of the heart) to the central nervous system (nerves in the brain). This foundational and peer-reviewed research resulted in very precise and accurate measures of neurologic activity.
The development of the algorithms began when Immersion founders received early funding from the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which was looking for ways to objectively measure message efficacy without all the messiness of blood draws, lab work, or the crazy looking gear. The experiments were successful, leading the researchers to spin off the technology into a commercial application.
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What does Immersion measure?
Immersion is a state of deep emotional engagement or captivation with an experience. Academic research from the founders and other neuroscientists have identified two key elements to neurologic immersion: attention to the experience and emotional resonance.
The Key Algorithm: Attention + Emotional Resonance = Immersion
Attention: as attention increases, activity in the brain’s prefrontal cortex causes an increase in sympathetic activity.
Emotional Resonance: associated with the brain’s synthesis of the neurochemical oxytocin, which increases activity of the vagus nerve (the longest nerve coming from the head that innervates the heart and gut).
The system measures activity in the nerves that control the heart, and this activity is correlated with signals from the brain, which allows us to quantify the neurologic responses to any kind of experience. We capture this with fitness sensors and smartwatches that Immersion has found to be sufficiently reliable for continuous monitoring. Our algorithms convert neural signals into predictors of decisions and actions (not simply intentions or feelings).
Immersion vs. The Status Quo
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How does Immersion differ from traditional biometrics?
Even though we start with heart data, we are not traditional biometrics. Why? Biometrics is a catch-all term to describe any measure of body responses (e.g., heart rate, skin conductivity/ GSR). Data from biometrics is usually output in raw form and can be difficult to interpret.
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What makes Immersion different from other neuroscience-based techniques?
The five key ways we differ are as follows:
Immediate, real-time results. A lot of neuroscience hardware is expensive or complicated to use. This means that both the collection and analysis of data is slow, at times taking weeks to get results. Immersion captures data second-by-second that is processed in real-time, meaning you can see the results in real-time and capture insights immediately after your experience is over.
Measure reactions in a real-world environment. While lab environments provide lots of control, labs are not where people experience life (at least for the vast majority of us humans.) If you want to be confident the insights you get really represent your audience, you need to measure natural consumption. Immersion can be captured anywhere a person can wear a smartwatch and has cellular or WIFI to transmit data to our platform. This means you can measure your immersion from the comfort of your own couch.
Outcome focused. We also do not stop with raw data like most neuro companies. Instead, we use algorithms derived from 15+ years of peer-reviewed and government-funded research to convert the peripheral physiology measures we track to our measure of immersion. Academically, we conducted many tests with neuro and biometric methodologies (EEG, fMRI, facial coding, eye-tracking, blood draws, hormone infusion) to identify the most important markers of a brain state linked to high value and future action, and that work is the foundation of our immersion algorithms.
Neuro for Normies. We are democratizing neuroscience by providing technology that anyone can use - from the hardware involved (smartwatches) to the software that processes and displays the data (just another program on your computer.) This allows you to run studies immediately, rather than waiting to get research vendor quotes, project kick-offs, etc. The truth of it is that what you pay for with vendors is expertise in conducting and interpreting neuroscience research. While we have plenty of neuroscientist PhDs on our team, you do NOT have to be one to understand and use our technology. Anyone that can download an app and place a smartwatch on a wrist can use Immersion. We like to call it “Neuro for Normies.” :)
360 support. Although you can do it yourself, we really geek out on working with companies to get the most out of our platform. We do not leave anyone to figure things out for themselves. We know that you will have a surprisingly awesome experience and our team - both the Neuros and the Normies - are here to help with any questions you may have. -
What challenges are other neuroscience-based tests up against?
Eye-tracking - This method lets you measure visual attention, but not impact or value of content. There are remote vendors, but there’s usually a high rate of data loss due to lighting and head orientation requirements - meaning you may recruit 50 people to get 25-30 good pieces of data. In some cases, marrying eye-tracking to Immersion can be useful, but eye-tracking is usually costly and takes a lot of time for data return.
Facial coding - Popularized by the work of psychologist Paul Ekman, facial coding is one of the most widely utilized measures in neuromarketing. This is mostly due to the simplicity of the measure (facial gestures = emotions) and the scalability of using webcams to capture data and algorithms to code facial gestures. However, the latest science (example here) highlights the many flaws of facial coding, including issues with how it’s done but also its lack of predictive validity. Moreover, the technology is almost entirely focused on presenting content via a computer in an environment with sufficient lighting where the subject is asked to remain still and keep their head in one position within a few feet of the camera. Not sure about you, but that is not how we consume any type of content in the real world.
EEG - There’s a ton of variance in quality of tools used to measure EEG. Devices with only a few electrodes, while easy to use, are not reliable or very valid; and medical-grade EEG caps are cumbersome, uncomfortable to wear, and restrained to a lab setting - which of course undermines natural consumer reactions. Some EEG vendors claim they can tease out different emotional responses, but this isn’t possible given the poor spatial resolution of EEG, deep brain location of emotion, and the lack of distinct physiologic patterns for most emotions. Moreover, the cost and expertise make it prohibitive in many real-world applications. Imagine the looks you would get when going into a store wearing a shower cap with electrodes...
Skin conductance / heart rate - Even though we start with cardiac data, we do not measure traditional biometrics. Biometrics is a catch-all term to describe any measure of body responses (e.g., heart rate, skin conductivity/ GSR). Biometrics data are usually output in raw form and are difficult to interpret. The Immersion platform does not provide users raw data like most neuroscience technologies. Moreover, GSR is dependent on tight control of the environment (little hand movement, temperatures around 68-72F).
Implicit reaction time - It is a stretch to identify this as a true neuro methodology. Reaction time is the speed of response and assumes that when things are more strongly associated in the brain, it leads to faster responses. This concept is rooted in academic work on biases, and has not shown reliability or predictive validity in the space of market research.
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How is Immersion so much more accurate than a survey?
There are many factors that go into the accuracy (or lack thereof) of surveys. Human's connection to our emotions and opinions is a delicate thing. Emotions are difficult to self-report because they often come and go quickly and can occur below our awareness. Because of this, asking individuals to share what emotions they felt after an experience makes it difficult to accurately measure emotion with self-report. The fact that Immersion measures the brain's captivation in real time means we are not asking participants to leave the experience and try to articulate what they felt in the past, we are capturing what they are feeling live.
The Science
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What are Immersion sensors directly measuring?
The sensors are picking up cardiac activity using a technology called photoplethysmography, or PPG. This technology uses a light wave that penetrates the skin to observe changes in blood flow. This is the same way an Apple Watch can detect your heart rate. These sensors let us derive subtle change in your heart and vagus nerve activity. Essentially, the sensors are capturing minute changes in your nervous system that allow us to identify important shifts in the brain state we call Immersion.
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What is needed to collect Immersion data?
No weird hats for you! All you need is:
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Sensors or smartwatches enabled with an Immersion app
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Wi-Fi or cellular service
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People to wear the sensors (we like to call them “brains to measure” but that does not fly for all audiences 🤓)
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A computer to set up the event
Any project can be remote, with people participating from the comfort of their own home, or in-store, or at the office meeting, or any other type of place/experience while you are hundreds of miles away viewing data coming in real-time.
We also have a desktop app that can collect from many people at a time, so people do not need to download our app to their individual phones or sensors. This is useful for in-person events like meetings, conferences, or concerts.
For any approach, you first set up an event in our platform, identifying how many people will participate. Then you invite your participants to join. This can be done via email, a shareable link, or by using our calendar invite option. Immersion will automatically create your event, send invites (if you have selected that option), and start/stop the event according to your schedule.
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Psychological Safety
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What is Psychological Safety?
Man, that is a good question. There is a lot of talk about psychological safety these days. Because it really is so important. According to Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, who coined the term, "psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes."
Essentially, psychological safety is the freedom to think and act without fear. And that freedom is everything. It is such a buzz word these days and so important because creating an environment in which people/employees/teammates etc. feel comfortable to take risks is key to fostering innovation in the workplace, or anyplace.
If you want to learn more, check out our blog on psychological safety and measuring readiness here.
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What is the Psychological Safety metric?
We offer the only objective measure of psychological safety, or the readiness to learn and participate in an experience. When people are low in psychological safety, they are likely to feel stressed or vulnerable in the experience. This means that learning, creativity, and collaboration may be inhibited.
Listed as "Safety" -- This score represents your audience's readiness to engage and learn. “Zen” is the highest level of psychological safety while “very unsafe” means those participants are likely anxious or uncomfortable.
Participants
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How can I find participants for my Immersion experience?
Since our technology works for anyone (with a device) anywhere, there are a lot of ways to gather participants. Of course, you can just ask your friends, coworkers, or family members - and really get their true opinions. This is great for quick gut checks. If you need to source more traditional respondents to fit into specific demographics or psychographics, a member of our customer success team can set you up with one of our panel partners. Shoot us a note at success@immersionneuro.com and we'll help you make a plan.
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Does Immersion provide participants for experiences?
We do not maintain our own panel of participants. But we would be happy to link you with one of our panel partners who can help you source brains for your measurement. Shoot us a note at success@immersionneuro.com and we'll get started.
(And yes, we know that "sourcing brains" sounds like we are some sort of Dr. Frankenstein. We're not. It's just when you talk about neuroscience this much (you should hear our team happy hours) , "sourcing brains" sounds cool.)
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How many participants do I need for my data to be accurate / statistically significant?
In order to get an accurate reading you need about 35 good quality participants per group you would like to compare. Meaning that if you wanted to look at differences between people who wear shoes and those who don’t, you would want a sample of 70 people (35 who are shoeless and 35 who wear shoes). However, if you just want to learn where the good, the bad, and the ugly are in your presentation or content you only need to source 35 brains.
How did we come to the conclusion of 35 brains? We used a sample size calculator of course. This is just a fancy way of saying we’ve already done the math for you - looking at effect size, confidence intervals, and standard deviations.
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I am a participant in Immersion, how do I see my data?
Luckily for you there’s an app for that. 🤓 In the phone app that you downloaded to participate in the measurement, there's a tab called "Completed" at the bottom. Click here and you will see a list of the experiences you have participated in. You can click into any experience to see your data. If you signed in using your email address, you'll also receive your results via email from our system.
Happy Participating!
Devices
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What smartwatches and devices can be used to measure Immersion?
We are adding new devices that work with Immersion all the time, so check back if you do not see your device listed.
Our platform currently works with:
- Any Apple Watch 3 and above with watchOS 6.3+ (7.0.2 recommended) and iPhone iOS 13+
- WearOS watches: Fossil Sport, Fossil Gen 5, TicWatch E2, TicWatch S3
- Scosche wearables: Rhythm+, Rhythm 24
- Whoop fitness sensors
- Most fitness sensors that broadcast cardiac data over bluetooth
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How do you enable data collection on my smartwatch/device?
It's all done through our app. First step is to go to the app store on your phone. Search for and download Immersion Mobile. Once you open the app on your phone, it will walk you through the steps to install (super easy) on your smartwatch/device. Then, when you are ready to start measuring your immersion, open the application your smartwatch/device and it will prompt you to start data collection. If you have any issues, reach out to our Brain Trust at support@getimmersion.com.
The Measurements & Output
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What is the system output?
Chart Data. Results are displayed in real-time and also post-testing in a second-by-second line chart which shows increases and drops in Immersion throughout the experience. In the case of video or audio testing, results can be shown moment by moment in sync with video or audio playback. The timestamped data can be downloaded for additional analyses and to complement traditional data sources. Events can easily be sliced into sub-events for simple cross-comparison of metrics so you can track how immersed your participants were in that meeting when your boss made that glorious dad joke.
Metrics. In addition to the line graph, multiple numerical metrics are calculated. These metrics are benchmarked to data from thousands of people.
- Immersion – The neurologic ‘Value’ factor, based on attention + emotional resonance during any kind of experience. This is a linear real-time measure from 0-100 so that higher values indicate greater Immersion. Higher Immersion measures also mean actions following content are more likely to occur. “Captivated” indicates the highest level of immersion while “Tuned out” represents the lowest range of immersion scores.
- Safety -- The score that represents your audience is ready to engage and learn. “Zen” is the highest level of psychological safety while “very unsafe” means those participants are likely zoned out or uncomfortable.
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What is needed to collect Immersion data?
No weird hats for you! All you need is:
- Sensors or smartwatches enabled with an Immersion app
- Wi-Fi or cellular service
- People to wear the sensors (we like to call them “brains to measure” but that does not fly for all audiences 🤓)
- A computer to set up the event
Any project can be remote, with people participating from the comfort of their own home, or in-store, or at the office meeting, or any other type of place/experience while you are hundreds of miles away viewing data coming in real-time.
We also have a desktop app that can collect from many people at a time, so people do not need to download our app to their individual phones or sensors. This is useful for in-person events like meetings, conferences, or concerts.
For any approach, you first set up an event in our platform, identifying how many people will participate. This can be done manually (you send a link to each participant) or using our calendar invite option (you insert attendee’s emails and Immersion will automatically create your event, send invites, and start/stop the event according to your schedule.)
Pricing
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What pricing options does Immersion offer?
Our pricing model is simple and designed to help people jump in quickly.
Schedule a demo today to get the full details.
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Does everyone I share my Immersion data with need a subscription?
Nope. We have a cool result sharing feature! This will allow you to share the results of an Immersion measurement with your stakeholders.
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What happens when my free trial ends?
When your free trial ends, we'll probably both be sad, but agree that it was more about timing and less about the time we left the open jar of peanut butter on the counter. Once your account has expired we will keep your data available in the system for up to 6 months to allow you to restart your account in the same place you left it. You will not be able to login, conduct an experience, or export data unless you have an active account. But the GREAT news is, it is easy and very affordable to sign up for a subscription - so you can just sign up and keep going! (No, we do not just automatically sign you up for a subscription. That's a jerk move in our book.)
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Can I upgrade or downgrade / switch plans at any time?
Yes. We want to make sure that you have the plan that you need and we know that needs change. If you want to edit which plan you are on, just shoot us a note at support@getimmersion.com and we'll get it sorted!
Data & Privacy
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How does Immersion ensure anonymity?
Although you use your email to sign in, we never link your email with a device ID. Only the device ID is linked to the data. You can choose whether or not you would like to tell someone your device ID, but that is your call. Otherwise you will stay anonymous in our system. If you wish for your email to not be used in our system, you can always sign in as a guest in the app and bypass entering personal info all together.
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Are there any concerns with PII (personally identifiable information)?
Data privacy and your protection are of utmost importance to the Immersion team.
We follow the latest required data protection and privacy guidelines, which you can review in our Data Privacy article. [link to Data Privacy article]
Unless you have given approval for the individual or entity collecting data to link personally identifying information to your data (e.g., name or email), all data is de-identified and only reported in aggregate. This means your data is combined with data from others who were measured before results are shared.
The physiologic data we collect from your smartwatch or wearable is also converted via our algorithms; therefore, none of your personal health-related data is shared with the individual or entity collecting data.
If you have more questions about privacy or data protection, please reach out to your Customer Success Representative, or email us at support@getimmersion.com. -
Where is the Immersion data stored?
Once a data collection event is complete, the data remains accessible through your Immersion account. All data is hosted via a secure AWS server.
If you are a customer with an active subscription, you can also access your completed event data at any time by visiting our web portal [link to https://].
If you have paused your subscription, you can still access data but may not collect new data. If your subscription is currently inactive and you want to access previously collected data, please email us at support@getimmersion.com to learn how you can gain access. -
READ MORE ON OUR PRIVACY PAGE