Over the course of their careers, Dr. Leanne Chukoskie and Dr. Jeanne Townsend, both researchers at UC San Diego, recognized a lack of follow-through from discovery research into effective interventions for children with attention issues. Rather than studying atypical development in attention and just publish their findings (which is what many researchers do), they wanted to create something that could improve attention skills.

Using their deep understanding of attention development and the eye movement system, they decided to test an innovative idea: could you train attention skills using video games that you controlled with your eyes? This was further enabled by the first consumer priced eye trackers becoming available at the time.

The gaze-driven video games delivered measurable attention improvements in all 23 participants who completed the training. (Learn more about The Science.) Some of the children even wanted to keep the games after the 12-week study because they found the games fun.

It was clear that this was a product that could help millions of children improve the attention skills they need to do well in school and in life. That is when Jeff Coleman joined the team and helped form BrainLeap Technologies.