---
title: "New VR Headset Reads Your Biometrics to Find Your Breaking Point"
description: "The HP Omnicept measures biometrics to tell when people are stressed, which could be a good tool for high-stakes job simulations."
date: "2020-09-30"
modified: "2020-09-30"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/vr-headset-reads-biometrics-find-breaking-point"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
  - "Virtual Reality"
tags:
  - "biometrics"
  - "Simulation"
  - "the digest"
  - "virtual reality"
---

# New VR Headset Reads Your Biometrics to Find Your Breaking Point

![The HP Omnicept measures biometrics to tell when people are stressed, which could be a good tool for high-stakes job simulations.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/vr-headset-reads-biometrics-find-breaking-point.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: HP\</em\>*

## Poker Face

A new virtual reality headset, the HP Omnicept, comes with an unusual array of biometric scanners — all designed to measure when the user is feeling overwhelmed.

It sounds a bit creepy — a headset measuring your heart rate, facial tics, and pupil size to see when you're overwhelmed — [but *CNET* reports](<https://www.cnet.com/news/hps-face-tracking-heart-rate-enabled-vr-headset-aims-to-measure-digital-fatigue/#ftag=CAD590a51e>) that it could become a valuable tool in high-stakes job training for people like pilots, as it could help analyze how well users are handling the tasks at hand.

## Cognitive Load

With access to users' biometric data, HP could launch things like fitness apps or other tools that leverage personal data. But Jeremy Bailenson, a Stanford VR expert who worked on the Omnicept, told *CNET* that the team is staying narrowly focused for now.

"The world is full of people who claim they're going to measure your brainwaves and know your future, and that's really not what we're doing," Bailenson told *CNET*.

"We're saying, 'what would make people's lives work better?' Knowing \[cognitive\] load would be one of them," he added. "And what are the best signals on the planet to get there? I am not a fan of wildly sensing everything, and \[I believe in\] starting with a problem, solving that problem."

## Moving On

Beyond that, Bailenson sees promise for VR to improve job training or improve users' focus — though 2018 research suggested simulations [can't quite substitute](<https://futurism.com/brain-scan-stressed-pilots>) for the real thing.

"It's less than a five-year horizon, and probably closer to two or three," Bailenson told *CNET*.

**READ MORE:** [HP says its face-tracking, heart-rate enabled VR headset knows when you're overwhelmed](<https://www.cnet.com/news/hps-face-tracking-heart-rate-enabled-vr-headset-aims-to-measure-digital-fatigue/#ftag=CAD590a51e>) \[*CNET*\]

**More on simulations:** *[Brain Scans Of Stressed Pilots Uncover A Big Problem With How We Do Science](<https://futurism.com/brain-scan-stressed-pilots>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)