A $300 consumer product that promises to help one be more "mindful" & "present" more "efficiently" than plain old meditation. What is sad is the irony in all of this. What's sadder is that I want to buy it...<p>Might be brilliant on their part. Corporate consultant gurus are making quite a nickel telling execs to be more "mindful" & "present". Might be an opportune time to break into the market and displace some spiritual advisors with a little technology too. Maybe Verison 2.0 will help you down the 8fold path faster and without years of meditation & conditioning.
I've been waiting for a basic device that just tells me roughly what brain state I'm in (alpha/beta/delta/theta/gamma dominant) with bonus points if it has a feedback mechanism to make it easier to train one self into a certain state.<p>I don't think they got the pricing right. There are already quite a lot of consumer EEG devices on the market that either do more and/or are cheaper. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_consumer_brain%E2%80%93computer_interfaces" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_consumer_brain%E2...</a>
I'd like to dispense just a bit of unsolicited feedback: the website is SO flashy/animated that I scrolled all the way to the end and didn't pay attention to <i>any</i> of the actual content.
Big issue with this kind of headband is the position of electrodes. Forehead seems like a good place in the first time since the frontal lobe is devoid of hair, however the EEG signal at this place is heavily artifacted by muscular activity (blinks, eye movements, facial muscles).<p>The most "interesting" brain activity also happens in the central axis of the brain (going from nose, through the top of the head and back to the occiput). It is however a design challenge to get electrodes to this place without the use of ugly caps and gel.
Ahh, was hoping it was a device that delivered minimal tDCS. Does such a device exist?<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-current_stimulation" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-current_sti...</a>
I'm glad it wraps around the front of the head. It's an amazing visual clue to everyone else that this is the type of person you want to avoid a conversation with.
To give some more information, these tech info and sdk pages are linked from the faq site:<p>Tech specs:<p><a href="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0348/7053/files/muse-tech-spec-sheet.pdf?918" rel="nofollow">http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0348/7053/files/muse-tech-s...</a><p>SDK guide:<p><a href="https://sites.google.com/a/interaxon.ca/muse-developer-site/home" rel="nofollow">https://sites.google.com/a/interaxon.ca/muse-developer-site/...</a>
Reminds me of the Atari Mindlink.<p><a href="http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2600/mindlink.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2600/mindlink...</a><p>It worked via your forehead muscles.<p>Weirdly, I did consumer research testing for this thing as a teenager. They showed us a video and then let us test it with River Raid (which was an Activision game, go figure). Then one of those group sessions where they interview you all with someone filming behind a two-way mirror. The Atari thing did kinda work. Sorta. Anyway, it was a fun consumer research thing to be paid for.
Is this at all different from the Melon[0] headband (a Kickstarter backed project from ~a year ago, and half the price)?<p>[0] <a href="http://www.thinkmelon.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.thinkmelon.com/</a>
The cynic in me feels that much of what they may be determining is from muscle artifact...i've been looking through some (plain old clinical/medical 32 electrode) EEG data and even that has a lot of artifact. Although I suppose it's some behavioral correlation - the more stressed out you are the more you clench your muscles, I suppose.<p>At the very least if they've figured out how to get clean EEG w/o having to use smelly EEG conductive goop, props to them!
To the best of my basic knowledge (and as mentioned here already) EEG isn't going to be super-useful for a consumer device like this ... HEG (infrared detection of oxygen levels) is a better option in terms of the ratio of easy hookups to meaningful (mass market) results.
>Muse uses 7 finely calibrated EEG sensors to detect and measure the activity of your brain. This sensory input is translated into real-time feedback on your tablet or smart phone via Bluetooth. The result is a rich, real-time audio and visual experience.<p>Calibrated for whom?
I wonder when the first real such product will exist. Like any system that synchronizes by waves it can be modified by waves, probably much more than you'd be able to do through chemicals.<p>So who will make the first heroine headband ? It will probably need outputs as well as inputs though.
Given that Jason has funded this startup, also invested in Calm (and I believe in his intelligence), I should not doubt this product. This product has been demonstrated first in the Launch Hackaton and it worked. Coming from the signal processing background I'm always very suspicious how sensors can preform such great filtering on the signal, but looking at the investor profile makes me think there is something there.