Brain Gear is the new wearable device

ten years ago, A Fitbit It was as advanced a wearable device as possible. the Apple watch It quickly took its place, quickly becoming the best-selling smartwatch in the world. Then came the most elegant, the most modest Oura ring.

There’s now a new generation of wearables, designed specifically for your head. Instead of tracking your step count, heart rate, and skin temperature, these devices are designed to read your brain waves. Using electroencephalography, or EEG, they detect electrical impulses produced by the brain and use artificial intelligence to understand them.

Take Elimind, for example. Instead of just tracking your sleep, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s device aims to actually improve it. This $350 Elemind headband looks completely out of style Star Trek It is designed to enhance sleep quality. It detects a person’s brain signals to know whether they are asleep or awake and delivers a type of audio stimulation known as pink noise to move the brain from wakeful patterns to delta waves, which represent deeper sleep. In a Small experiment of 21 participantsThe device helped more than three-quarters of them fall asleep faster.

If you’re the type who works smarter rather than harder, you can buy a $500 pair of headphones from Boston-based Neurable to improve your productivity. Equipped with electroencephalography (EEG) sensors, headphones track focus-related brain activity — namely beta waves — to tell users how focused they are. When i I tried them last yearThey confirmed what I already suspected: the most focused working hours are during the morning. The device also prompts you to take a break occasionally if it thinks you’ve been concentrating too hard for too long, a feature I appreciate as someone who spends a lot of time in front of a computer screen.

Apple is also getting into wearable brain technology. Company He filed a patent in 2023 For the AirPods, there are electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors, although they haven’t hit the market yet. However, earlier this year, Apple New accessibility feature unveiled To allow the Vision Pro to be controlled through brain waves rather than physical movement. This means that an augmented reality headset can now be integrated with brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, systems that read brain signals to allow users to control devices with their thoughts.

A neurotechnology company, perceptionactually takes advantage of Apple’s new feature. The startup in Santa Barbara, California, has built an augmented reality app to run on the Vision Pro and a custom headband that detects brain signals. Currently, Cognixion is focused on using technology to help restore communication in people with speech impairments due to paralysis. But it’s not hard to see how the BCI-equipped Vision Pro could be adopted by a broader population for things like gaming or texting with your brain.

Earlier this year, I spoke with Andreas Milhedi of Elata Biosciences, who is building what he calls the “Open Internet of Brains,” an open-source network where anyone can create a neural application that can run on an EEG device. The nonprofit created its own device and Pong app, which it demonstrated this fall during a cryptocurrency conference in Singapore. About 30 people gathered on a restaurant patio to compete in a pong tournament, but instead of handheld controllers, competitors were given headphones that track brain signals. Their goal: to hit the ball on the screen with their paddle using only their thoughts.