Want to know what your brain is up to? Soon, it may be as simple as slipping on a wireless headband, then accessing an app. That’s the idea behind Muse, a wearable device developed by Toronto-based tech company InteraXon. Essentially a lightweight portable EEG (electroencephalography) machine, it lets users monitor their neural activity in real time via their mobile device.
First of all, why would anyone want to keep tabs on the electrical activity of their brain? According to the folks at InteraXon, it should help users to relax, concentrate, build confidence, or otherwise take control of their mental state. By being able to see their brain waves represented visually on their smartphone or tablet’s screen, users can then more easily train themselves to achieve and/or maintain a desired state of mind.
Down the road, it is also hoped that Muse could be used to control functions on smartphones, gaming consoles, computers, household appliances or other electronic devices.
The headband itself has four integrated sensors – two that make contact with the forehead, and one behind each ear. Those sensors pick up electrical output from the brain. That data is wirelessly transmitted to the user’s mobile device, where custom algorithms within a dedicated app process it into an onscreen display.
The app would also include various mental exercises, which the user would be guided through in real time while wearing the headband.
InteraXon is currently raising funds on Indiegogo, for the first production run of the product. A pledge of US$135 will get you a Muse, when and if the funding goal is reached and production is complete.
More information is available in the pitch video below.
Source: Indiegogo
twitter.com/interaxon www.interaxon.ca/blog www.facebook.com/interaXon
http://www.indiegogo.com/interaxonmuse?c=home&a=1643021
-- Dani, on behalf of the InteraXon team.
Most of the information based on electroencephalographic sensing at the skin level on the skull is hopelessly buried in electrical noise. In fact the signal-to-noise ratio is so low as to be almost unusable in most circumstances. Trying to retrieve anything useful from that type of interface (as opposed to invasive implantation of electrodes) is a massive task that has rarely been achieved even at the university research level. That these folks have done so is a huge tribute to them, and--it would appear--a bona fide breakthrough that will undoubtedly lead to a multitude of future applications that were only hinted at in the video.
Anyone who knows anything about EEG machines and reading brainwave electrical activity will clearly see this product for what it is, a toy. Seriously all you can do with four sensors is see a general level from the brain.
The great thing about it is that it gets ordinary people actually thinking a bit and may stimulate some much needed funding so that a device sensitive enough to be able to differentiate between small groups of neurons can be invented (wearable not truck size).
How else can you find those pesky neurons that start cascade events that cause problems. You cant spend days in an fMRI waiting for something to happen.