How to use teora-Mind

teora mind is a VR cognitive training application by living brain. It recreates everyday situations — an ice cream parlor, a kitchen, a garden — so you can practice the thinking skills those situations require: planning, memory, attention, and problem solving. Alongside the training exercises, the app includes a relaxation environment and a set of short activation games used as a warm-up.

Sessions are usually done together with a therapist, who helps choose the right exercise and difficulty level.

For a short overview of what teora mind offers, see the teora mind brochure.

Getting started in the app

Calibration

The first time you open teora mind, you'll be asked to calibrate your playing position. Take the position you'll be using — sitting or standing — then move your head so the circle in your view sits over the pink cross, and hold still until the circle's frame fills in. Calibration is complete.

Calibrating in your actual playing position matters, because it's what makes every part of the workspace comfortable to reach.

The tutorial

The tutorial is a guided introduction to the virtual environment. It has no strategic content — its only purpose is to get you comfortable with the controls and the way objects behave. Short text fields tell you what to do at each stage, and you'll learn to:

• Look around by moving your head
• Point and grab
• Use on-screen buttons with the cursor
• Use the virtual tablet
• Start, run, and finish an exercise
• Pick up, hold, and throw objects

You can start the tutorial at any time from the scenario selection by pressing Tutorial on the tablet.

Interacting with menus and objects

Turn your hand as if you were pointing at the screen. A blue beam appears from your virtual index finger with a dot at the end — that dot is your cursor, and it works like a mouse pointer. Aim it at a button and press the pointing button to click.

To pick something up, reach for it and press the grabbing button. For objects that are out of reach, press the pointing button and aim at the object; when a green beam appears, press the grabbing button as well and the object jumps into your hand. You can then release the pointing button.

Scenario selection

After calibration you arrive in the control room, which is the app's main menu. From here you can reach all of the exercises, the relaxation environment, and the activation games. Move the cursor over one of the images and confirm with the pointing button.

Difficulty levels

Every exercise starts with a difficulty setting between 5% and 100%, where 5% is the easiest and 100% the hardest. The default is 50%.

Difficulty changes several things at once, depending on the exercise: how much time you have, how many hints are available, how many tasks you're given, and how many objects appear.

Good to know: the duration and result shown on the results screen are approximate. The duration covers the time from when the scene loads until the exercise is completed, and the result reflects whether the task was met.

The virtual tablet

The virtual tablet accompanies you through every exercise and is how you navigate the app. It behaves like a real tablet — you touch it with your virtual hand — except that it floats. You can grab it, move it, and let go of it anywhere, and it stays where you put it.

The tablet shows:

• Exercise name — in the middle of the upper yellow bar
• Difficulty level — in a column on the left side of the screen
• Menu — the three-line button on the left
• Settings — the cogwheel button, below the menu button

Menu options

• Restart exercise — starts the current exercise again
• Scenario selection — returns to the main menu
• Exercise selection — returns to the exercise list for the current scenario
• The arrow button on the left goes back to the previous page

Settings options

• Recalibrate — recalibrates your height
• Instructions — opens the electronic user manual, which you can page through with the arrow buttons or the joystick, and close with the X button on the left
• Info — shows information about the application

Exercise flow

Each exercise opens with setup pages on the tablet explaining what the exercise involves, what to watch out for, and where you set the difficulty level. Press Start to begin. When all tasks are done, the tablet floats in front of you with a results page, which is also where you leave the exercise.

Exercises

Beach — Ice cream parlor

The Beach scenario is set in an ice cream parlor and is made up of five exercises that build on one another:

• Serving snacks — prepare and deliver orders for popsicles, lemonade, and waffles
• Ice cream making — prepare ice cream and waffles
• Prepare beverages — prepare lemonade and milkshakes
• Selling and cashing in — take pre-made orders and operate the cash register
• Full exercise — the whole workflow, from taking the order to giving change

How orders work

The screen on the left shows the order and the time remaining in seconds. An order can include up to three tasks, and the items needed for each task are listed separately. Put each finished item on the tray, and when the order is complete, press the bell to deliver it.

The large screen on the right then reviews the order: a green check mark next to each correct item, a red cross next to anything that was missed or handed over unnecessarily, and a breakdown of the total due.

Preparing the items

Popsicles — grab the yellow or green packaged popsicle the order asks for and place it on the tray at the top center.

Lemonade — there are two flavors, orange lemonade and cola, shown as orange and brown; and two cup sizes, shown as blue (small) and red (large).

• If the order screen shows a bottle symbol, take the right bottle and place it on the tray unopened.
• If it shows a cup symbol, take a cup from the matching stack, then take the lemonade bottle from under the middle shelf. Hold the bottle lid-up under the bottle opener hanging between the two bottles and make a lever movement — toward you or away from you, depending on how the bottle sits. Once it's open, pour it into the cup.

The cup has a red mark inside showing the minimum fill level. Filling below that line earns you less money and fewer reputation stars, and overfilling makes the cup spill over.

For ice cubes, take them from the open cooler on the right side of the countertop and drop them into the cup.

Waffles — for a plain waffle, take one and place it on the tray. If the order calls for a hot waffle, put it in the toaster next to the stack; toasting starts on its own and the hot waffle comes out shortly after.

Ice cream — take a cup or cone from the stack. You can hold it in your hand or rest it on the counter, whichever is more comfortable. Grab the disher, hold it in the right container (strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla), and scrape until a scoop forms — a circular green light flashes when the scoop reaches full size. Hold the disher over the cup or cone and press the pointing button to release it. Repeat until you have the number of scoops the order asks for.

Note: scoops that haven't reached full size bounce off instead of landing in the cup, cone, or waffle.

Milkshakes — the instructions are also posted on the wall to your right. Take a cup, grab the milk from the top left shelf, and tilt it over the cup to fill it. Add a scoop of ice cream with the disher, then place the cup in the mixer, grab the mixer's lever, and hold it down. The lights at the base of the mixer show the progress; when the light turns green, release the lever and take the cup out.

You can add only one topping per milkshake.

Toppings

• Spray cream — grab the bottle from the top left shelf, hold it upright over the top scoop, and press the pointing button
• Sprinkles — grab the jar from the top left shelf, hold it over the item, and shake it
• Sauce — hold the finished item under the sauce dispenser below the top left shelf

The cash register

After you press the bell, the tray mechanism lowers with the money and the counter slides so the cash register sits in your workspace.

Take the money and drop it into the opening on the register. The Change to give line shows how much change is owed, and Current change shows how much you've counted out so far. Press the buttons on the register with your index finger to add coins and notes. When the two amounts match, take the money out of the register and place it on the tray, then press the bell again so the tray rises and the counter slides back for the next order.

At higher difficulty levels, some of the pre-made orders on the counter are deliberately wrong — check every item against the order before you put it on the tray.

Difficulty

Higher difficulty means longer orders and more complex items. From 25% the delivery time is limited, though generously at first; at 95% it gets tight. In the exercises that include payment, change amounts go from round numbers at low difficulty to awkward ones like €3.30 higher up.

Kitchen

• Coffee - Making — set up a coffee machine and make it ready to use
• Coffee - Order — fulfill coffee orders for up to three people
• Coffee - Making & Order — both of the above in sequence
• Fruit Salad - Recipe — choose a recipe, prepare the salad, and serve it
• Fridge - Clear out — clear items out of the refrigerator against the clock
• Groceries - Sorting — sort groceries into the right shelves
• Groceries - Sorting - Endless — the same task, until you make three mistakes

Coffee - Making

The exercise is about carrying out the assembly and filling steps in a logical order:

1. Plug the power cord into the outlet.
2. Open the water tank lid and fill the tank from the pitcher.
3. Take the bag of coffee beans from the shelf above the machine, remove the lid of the grinder compartment, pour the beans in, and put the lid back.
4. Pull the filter holder out by its handle, put in a filter from the box on the shelf, and push the holder back into place.
5. Place the coffee cup in the area under the filter holder.
6. Switch the machine on with the on/off button, which works only once the plug is in.
7. Choose one of the three coffee styles with the selection buttons.
8. Press the start button to begin brewing.
9. Optionally, place the finished coffee on the tray.
10. To make another coffee, throw the used filter in the trash and put in a new one.

Press Finish on the tablet to end the exercise.

At low difficulty you get help with the next step sooner, and the objects you need are highlighted. At very high difficulty there's no help at all.

Coffee - Order

Each person wants a particular type of coffee, and depending on the difficulty level, milk and sugar as well. Orders get more complex as difficulty rises. You can press Help at any point to review the orders — except at 100%.

Brewing works the same way as in Coffee - Making. Place the cup in the machine, switch it on, and choose the strength with the three buttons: one bean for weak, two for medium, three for strong. Press the start button and the coffee pours into the cup. Add milk and sugar if the order calls for it, then put the cup on the spot marked with that person's name.

Press Finish on the tablet to end the exercise and see a summary of which orders were right and which weren't.

In this exercise the filter never needs replacing, so you can make as much coffee as you like.

Coffee - Making & Order

This exercise combines the two. You see the orders first, then prepare the machine, then make the coffees and place them on the tray. Here the filter does have to be replaced after every coffee. Press Finish on the tablet when you're done.

Fruit Salad - Recipe

Choosing a recipe. Three recipes appear on the kitchen counter. Pick one up with the grabbing button and hold it over the marked area on the tablet — its edges light up green when it's positioned correctly — then release so the recipe transfers to the tablet.

The tablet then shows:

• The number of guests, at the top center. The smaller icon stands for children, the larger one for adults.
• A crossed-out fruit at the top right. This is a fruit your guests don't like, so choose a recipe without it or you'll lose points.
• The fruits and extras your chosen recipe needs, in the middle.
• Remove recipe at the bottom left, which clears the recipe from the tablet. You can also swap it by simply releasing another recipe into the same area — the old one floats back to its original place.
• Start Level at the bottom right. A confirmation message asks whether you want to continue with this recipe or pick a different one.

Note: memorize the recipe before you start the level.

Preparing the salad. The tablet sits on your right during preparation. Show hint displays the recipe again, and how often you can use it depends on the difficulty level:

• Up to 25% — as often as you like
• 30% to 80% — three times
• From 90% — twice
• From 95% — once
• At 100% — no hints

Some fruits have to be peeled before they can be cut, and some can be cut either way:

Only one of each fruit is available at a time. A new one appears on the shelf to the right once the previous one has been discarded, or peeled and cut into the salad. Up to 50% difficulty only the fruits in your recipe appear; above that, fruits you don't need show up too.

Three extras are available: mint, sliced almonds, and honey.

The station has the following elements:

• Cutting machine — pick up a fruit with the grabbing button and release it over the machine once it lights up green, then grab the top edge of the lid and pull it down. If the fruit needs peeling first, the machine won't work and the peeling machine lights up instead.
• Peeling machine — release a fruit into the machine once it lights up green, then grab the lever at the top and lower it fully once. You can then release the lever and take the peeled fruit out.
• Contents display — since the bowl can look messy, this display lists what's currently in the salad.
• Salad bowl and platform — to empty the bowl, for example after adding the wrong fruit, grab the lever next to it and pull it toward you. Everything in the bowl goes in the trash.
• Extras — pick mint leaves off the plant with the grabbing button. Pick up the bag of almonds and tilt it sideways to pour out the flakes. Grab the honey bottle and press the pointing button to squeeze it; a glowing pointing finger and a message tell you this second action is needed the first time you pick it up.
• Trash can — for anything you want to get rid of, including the contents of the bowl.

Note: fruits and extras that are already in the salad can't be taken back out — the only way to undo them is to empty the whole bowl and start again. Check what you're adding before you add it.

When the salad is ready, press Serve fruit salad on the tablet and confirm.

Serving. Lay out a tray with the right number of large and small bowls and spoons for the adults and children you're serving. Take the items from the stacks behind the tray with the grabbing button and place them on the tray; the tablet on the right lists what's currently on it.

Press Serve dishes on the tablet and confirm to hand them out. This ends the exercise and shows your points.

Fridge - Clear out

The tablet shows food items to take out of the refrigerator, and it doesn't matter which item from the list you pick first. At higher difficulty levels you also have to judge whether the food is still good: good food goes in the basket, expired food in the trash can.

The goal is to sort as many items as possible in the time available while staying focused.

A countdown at the top of the tablet ends the exercise when it reaches 0. To stop sooner — if it's too easy, for example — press End early at the bottom right.

How difficulty changes the exercise:

• The trash can appears only from 20%. From that point on, expired items appear in the refrigerator too, marked with a sticker identifying them as bad.
• From 50%, the trash can and the basket swap positions at irregular intervals during the exercise.
• The higher the level, the less time you have per item and the more time you lose for a mistake. The time deducted also grows the longer the exercise runs.

Sorting an item correctly earns bonus time; sorting one incorrectly costs time.

Groceries - Sorting

Sort each item of food into the right place — an apple into fruit, orange juice into drinks. The categories are Fruits, Vegetables, Fridge, Pantry, and Drinks, and the number in play grows with the difficulty level.

Up to 40%, stickers on the items tell you where they belong. The tablet shows how many items you've sorted out of the total.

Groceries - Sorting - Endless

Endless mode runs until you make three mistakes. Empty crosses show how many mistakes you have left, and a filled cross marks each one you've made. Higher difficulty levels bring more types of groceries into the mix.

Garden — Planting - Planning

In this exercise you grow a plant and harvest its fruit, planning the steps before carrying them out.

Action planning

Sort the cards into the correct order on the wooden board in front of you. How many cards you get depends on the difficulty level. The front of each card shows a picture of an action and the back gives a short description.

At the highest difficulty level, the full sequence is:

1. Fertilizing
2. Digging a hole
3. Planting a sapling
4. Filling up the watering can
5. Watering the flowerbed
6. Removing weeds
7. Picking the fruits
8. Washing the fruit
9. Depositing the fruits

Press Review on the tablet to check your sequence. Cards in the right position light up green; cards in the wrong position light up orange and need to be moved.

Note: remember the order well — you'll be carrying out these steps yourself.

Press Start on the tablet to begin.

The garden

• Tablet — press Help if you get stuck and the steps of your plan appear briefly on the wooden board.
• Wooden board — an orange border marks the next step, and a green border marks completed steps. After the exercise, the board shows successful steps in green, successful steps that didn't match your planned order in orange, and unsuccessful or missing steps in red.
• Fertilizer — pick up the container, turn it so the opening faces down, and shake it over the flower bed.
• Shovel — grab the shovel and bring the metal part to the soil to dig a hole.
• Sapling — grab the sapling from the left and place it in the hole you dug. There are three types: strawberry, tomato, and cucumber.
• Flowerbed — the plant needs enough water and fertilizer to grow. At higher difficulty levels weeds appear and have to be pulled out: grab them and move your hand upward. A water level indicator with a minimum fill line shows how much water the plant still needs; once the line is passed, the indicator stays full. In sandbox mode it empties over time, so you'll need to water again when it falls below the line.
• Growth meter — shows the plant's status at a glance: a steady fertilizer or water icon means there's enough, and a flashing one means it's missing. The weed icon is greyed out when there are no weeds and flashes when weeds need removing. The plant growth icon fills in leaf by leaf from the bottom up, and shows the complete image once growth is finished. A flashing "prevented growth" icon appears for as long as the plant can't grow, and a wilted plant icon appears while the plant is wilted, which only happens in sandbox mode.
• Watering can — rotate the lever on the tap to fill the can, then pick it up and tilt it so water pours from the spout.
• Water bath — once fruits have grown, pick them and dip any dirty ones in the water bath.
• Fruit deposit box — place the harvested fruits in the box. The exercise ends automatically once three fruits are inside.

Relaxation

Select Relaxation in the scenario selection and wait for the scene to load.

You find yourself in a glass dome in space. In front of you is a device with a round frame, several buttons, and a handle. Behind it, video spheres rest on a number of constellations, each constellation representing a region of the world.

The device is how you choose a video. Grab it by the handle or anywhere along the red bar and rotate it, and the floating constellations rotate with it. The regions appear as miniatures on the device, and the name of the region is shown on its screen, so you can look for a specific place. The buttons let you apply optional filters, which light up the matching spheres:

• Sun — good weather
• Rain — bad weather
• Forest — green landscapes
• Mountains — stony landscapes
• Sea — beach

Click a video sphere with the cursor, grab it, and place it in the circular receptacle in front of you to start a 360° video.

The videos have no end, so you need to stop one to return to the relaxation room. The device is hidden while a video plays — press the grabbing button to bring it back in front of you, then either take the sphere out of the receptacle or press Stop on the tablet.

To leave the scene, grab the red sphere and place it in the receptacle. This returns you to the scenario selection.

Activation games

The activation games are meant to activate and warm up the player. They are not full exercises and shouldn't be treated as a substitute for them.

Select Activation games in the scenario selection to see the games available. Point at a game with the controller and press the pointing button to start it, and use the arrow button at the top left to go back to the overview.

Ice cream stacking

Stack scoops of ice cream in a cup to build a tower that reaches the target height. Items fall onto the playing field from above and cast shadows, so you can keep your eyes on the field to see where each one is going to land. Catch the scoops with the cup and stack them — but some items will damage your tower, and those you need to avoid.

To move the cup, grab it and move your arm around the playing field.

The spawner creates the falling items, and the longer the game lasts, the faster they appear and fall. Three items can appear:

• Ice cream — can be stacked in the cup or on top of another scoop
• Cheese — if it touches a scoop on the tower, that scoop and everything above it is destroyed
• Sushi — if it touches a scoop, nothing can be stacked on that scoop for a short time

The yardstick shows the height you need to reach with a red mark and your tower's current height with a yellow one.

At higher difficulty levels the yardstick and its finish line are higher, so the tower has to be taller, and the items fall faster.

Speed smashing

Items travel along a conveyor belt from left to right into a cardboard box at the end, and your job is to make sure only permitted items get there. Smash the prohibited ones with the rolling pin: grab it, then move your arm in a striking motion. The belt speeds up as the game goes on.

Some items break with a single hit — eggplant, banana, butter, orange, tomato, and yogurt — while cola cans, ravioli cans, and melons need two.

The screen behind the conveyor belt shows which items are permitted, with the error indicator directly above it. Each prohibited item that reaches the box adds a red cross, and the game ends at three.

Higher difficulty levels bring a greater variety and number of items, more permitted and prohibited items to keep track of, and more items that need two hits.

Pizza throwing

Score as many points as you can by throwing pizzas into pizza boxes. The harder a box is to reach, the more it's worth.

The pizzas appear on a small table in front of you. Grab one, make a throwing motion like you would with a frisbee, and release the grabbing button at the right moment. When a pizza lands, the points are shown next to the box; the box then closes and reopens shortly afterward for the next throw.

Each round is timed. When the time runs out, the tablet offers to start another round if you've collected enough points, and you can also end the game there. The number of points needed goes up with every extension, and the game ends when you can't cover it.

At higher difficulty levels more of the boxes move around and each box is worth fewer points, so you need more successful throws to reach the next round.

Recycling

Sort the items into the correct bins, keeping in mind that some of them have to be crushed first.

Once the scene loads, the tablet in front of you shows a summary of the game. Press the arrow on the right side of the tablet to go to the next page, then press Start. Press Finish on the tablet to end the game.

Press the red button on the left side of the table to make a new item appear in the middle. Three items can appear: a can, which needs to be crushed first, and a bottle and an apple, which don't.

Three bins are available: Recyclables for the can, Glass container for the bottle, and Organic waste for the apple. Only the organic waste bin has to be opened — grab the red handle and move it up and back.

To crush an item, grab it and place it in the center of the crusher, then grab the red lever at the top and pull it down.

The scoreboard behind the table shows how many items you've recycled correctly.

This game has no adjustable difficulty level.