This article was taken from the July 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
This headset can read your mind.
Made by San José-based NeuroSky, the Mindwave measures brainwave activity with 96 percent of the precision of a standard electroencephalogram (EEG). It wirelessly sends raw brain data to a laptop, displaying two mental states: attention, and how relaxed you are. "We can't see our brains working, but with visual feedback of how your brain behaves we can train it a lot better," says NeuroSky's CEO, Stanley Yang. "In a hospital you have to lie still, away from all sources of electrical interference, to have your brainwaves read. Our chip captures your very weak brainwave as you go about normal life."
NeuroSky's online store offers apps such as Speed Math, which monitors players' attention levels as they solve maths challenges.
It adapts the level of difficulty according to their mental state. "It's like a private tutor that understands your mind and gives you tasks that are tailor-made to your capabilities," says Yang.
The headset costs €99 (£88); the chip itself has been licensed to Mattel, Toshiba and Nokia. Yang says one million devices with the chip have been sold, with five million more expected to be shipped in 2011. Stanford University's Sleep Lab is using the headset to pre-vet test subjects; the US Olympic archery team uses it to get "in the zone" during training. Some time soon, Yang says, your car-seat's headrest will have a chip embedded that reads brain signals to know when you're tired. Smart.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
