Contract Management Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, Federal Building, Room 901, 7550 Wisconsin Avenue, MSC 9190, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-9190

A -- DEVELOPMENT OF VIRTUAL REALITY HEADGEAR/GOGGLES AND GLOVES FOR USE IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF COGNITIVE AND MOTOR TASKS SOL RFP No. NIH-NINDS-98-04 DUE 042398 POC Contact Point, Patricia Denney, 301/496/1813, Contracting Officer, Kirkland L. Davis, 301/496-9203 The Cognitive Neuroscience Section (CNS), Division of Intramural Research, of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health, supports the development of virtual reality headgear and gloves that can be used to administer cognitive and motor tasks of various kinds (headgear) and to allow for manual responses to stimulus presentation (gloves). Offerors shall have design and operation experience and are capable of providing a Virtual Reality (VR)/Virtual environment "TURNKEY"system including headgear, gloves, and software. Such a system would be used for cognitive neuroscience research within the NINDS's intramural research program. More specifically, such a system would be used to administer cognitive and motor tasks of various kinds (headgear) and to allow for manual responses to stimulus presentation (gloves). The headgear and gloves would be used in conjunction with standard experimental cognitive and visuomotor tasks and also be used during neuroimaging experiments for the purposes of functional stimulation and response execution. The VR system would consist of four components: 1. Gloves designed with flexible sensors which can accurately and reliably measure the position and movement of the fingers and wrist. Additional features of the glove would include the ability to simulate resistance at object borders during grasp of a simulated object in the VR environment. The glove will also be used to determine response times, posture, and movement dynamics of the fingers and hand. Touch-sensitive response boards will also be necessary so that a simple touch of a finger anywhere on the board will record the contact to enable movement or response times to be recorded complementing the basic functions of the glove in space. 2. Headgear which can display high resolution static or dynamic images. This device (goggles or head-mounted) would be used to display experimental stimuli with the option of aural accompaniment. 3. Dedicated hardware to support the gloves and headgear. MAC, PC, SUN or Silicon Graphics workstations would be necessary and specially configured to support the presentation and response acquisition software. 4. Software for the Virtual Reality (VR) system must be compatible with the hardware. This VR software should be able to display both static (e.g., a series of single images, e.g., objects) and dynamic (e.g., video-like images-e.g., virtual environments such as a village or apartment) interactive stimuli. The VR software user interface must be designed to be user-friendly and icon based (similar to a MAC or Windows interface). A key design requirement is that the materials used for the gloves and headgear must be suitable for use with functional magnetic resonance imaging (in addition to use with PET). Both glove and headgear will be required, furthermore, to be adapted for additional recording devices (e.g., EMG for the cyberglove; eye movement sensor for the headgear/goggles). Personnel with established expertise in computer hardware and peripheral devices, software development, computer analysis and robotics are needed. It is anticipated that one award will be made for a period of three years in September 1998. This is not a Request for Proposals (RFP). THE SOLICITATION WILL BE AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY ONLY. It will be available at this website (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/cmb) 15 or more calendar days after the issuance of this synopsis. OFFERORS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ROUTINELY CHECKING THIS WEBSITE FOR ANY POSSIBLE SOLICITATION AMENDMENTS THAT MAY BE ISSUED. NO INDIVIDUAL NOTIFICATION OF ANY AMENDMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED. All responsible sources may submit a proposal which shall be considered by the agency. Refer to numbered Note 26.**** Sincerely yours, Patricia S. Denney Contracting Officer National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH (0050)

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