Virtual Home Health Care Research

NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to negotiate a contract on a
sole source basis with Xsens North America Inc., El Segundo, CA. The purpose of the contract is for the contractor to supply equipment that would be used for Virtual Home Health Care research project at the National Institute of Nursing Research Advanced Visualization Branch (AVB). One of the main interests of the AVB is to study the ability of a patient to carry out their own home health care, particularly when the patient is newly diagnosed. One aspect of this research is to examine how this ability is affected by their interactions with health care professionals. For this reason, avatars need to be created with realistic motion and behaviors. Otherwise, the interactions will not be convincing, and the subject will not respond as they would for a human interaction. The most effective way to create a realistic interaction is to record a human actor carrying out the appropriate behaviors and then apply these recorded behaviors onto an avatar. In order to perform this recording and transfer of body, face and hand motions a set of compatible software and hardware are required. This compatibility is a limiting factor in the purchasing of the necessary assets. Following review of market available motion capture suits, the Xsens technology is the only known current vendor which meets all requirements for this project.
Responses
The proposed acquisition action is for items and/or services for which the
Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the
authority of FAR 13.106-1 (b). If you believe you can provide the items or
services, please forward capability statements to john.alozie@nih.gov by 5pm
(ET) on Friday August 23, 2019 and reference solicitation number
NIHOLAO-OD3-NOI-5478089.

A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract
acquisition based upon responses to the notice is solely within the discretion
of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for
the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.
This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or
otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government
reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose
deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to
this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed. Information provided will be used to assess tradeoffs and alternatives available for the potential requirement and may lead to the development of a solicitation. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.
Any solicitation resulting from the analysis of information obtained will be
announced to the public in Federal Business Opportunities in accordance with
the FAR Part 5. However, responses to this notice will not be considered
adequate responses to a solicitation. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or
sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government
reserves the right to use any nonproprietary technical information in any
resultant solicitation(s).

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