Our Story

Having completed his tour in the US armed forces as a satellite engineer, Dr. Geoff Wright was tasked with experiments on weightlessness for NASA. Using head-mounted virtual reality devices for human orientation testing, he quickly realized that knowing which way is up is surprisingly difficult. This started him thinking: how do we stay upright so easily? Working with top scientists, Geoff’s eyes were open to the complexity of standing on two feet. Why aren’t people falling all the time? It turns out, they are. Falls are one of the leading causes of injury and death in older adults. Once he started his own lab as a Professor of Neuromotor Science at Temple University, Geoff continued his investigations on balance. He was able to isolate and identify causes of falls through extensive research on those at greatest risk – patients with Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke, vestibular disorders, and of course healthy aging adults. Combining his knowledge of neuroscience with his experience in weightlessness, Geoff thought that by “tricking” the senses through virtual reality, balance impairments and deficits could be isolated and future falls likely prevented. With 1 in 4 seniors falling annually, Geoff realized his work could have a significant impact on the health and well-being of millions of seniors if he could move this out of the lab and into the clinic or even the home. A chance encounter with future partner Yigal Ron, a veteran in the Israel Army and also an entrepreneur and software expert, led to the formation of UprightVR and development of the SafetyNetTM software. From the simple question of “how do we stay upright,” UprightVR was formed.