Tripp Inc., a Culver City-based virtual reality wellness application, is expanding its technology with new patents.

Tripp’s virtual reality app facilitates therapy sessions with psychedelic animations and audio effects to encourage users to focus on mindfulness and relaxation. 

One of the two new patents will let Tripp alter sessions in real-time based on biological signals picked up from the VR headset’s gyroscope, such as breath pattern and heart rate. It’s currently finalizing a breath detection module that will modify visual patterns and images based on users’ breath, which it said will be released this quarter. 

The initial patent to adapt VR sessions to a user’s “sensed state” was awarded in April 2022 and the second, to modify experiences based on self-reported mood scoring, was awarded in December. 

Tripp, which was founded in 2017, said its application recently surpassed 7.5 million user sessions. Users can subscribe to Tripp on either a monthly, annual or lifetime basis on their VR headsets. 

Its platform is currently available on several different headsets, including all Meta Quest platforms as well as Qualcomm Snapdragon Spaces and Nreal’s mixed reality glasses.

“It’s been fascinating to even see how we can create content that’s more real-time authoring,” Tripp founder and Chief Executive Nanea Reeves said. 

Mood scoring is taken from a self-reported survey that users take prior to and after wellness sessions. Its structure is based on two existing evaluation tools used in clinical psychological settings: the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. 

Reeves said that, historically, Tripp sessions have not been adapted in real time based on mood scoring, but that this concept was always a goal. The first roll out will be a recommendation engine for content based on reported starting mood, which will evolve into taking the desired post-session mood into account.

“We’re doing some refactoring of our experience generation platform so that eventually we can, based on your stated mood, construct a more customized experience beyond just recommended audio and world scape,” Reeves said. 

The new breath detection module has animations that respond to breathing patterns and is designed to help the user be more aware of their physical state. 

“It gives you this concept of your breath, your own self-care, changing the way that you see the world, having that sense of agency but also a fun way to visualize as opposed to just a (robotic) voice telling you to inhale for eight,” Reeves said.