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Hands-on with the consumer-ready Muse headband and software
If you think the person above looks weathered, broken and a little bit ill, you'd be right. After all, it's the last day of CES, and although this editor wasn't sure he had any working neurons left, he nevertheless took a trip to InteraXon's booth to check out the consumer-ready version of Muse, the mind-probing headband. We first came across Muse this time last year, and in terms of hardware, only minor changes have been made. The EEG sensors in contact with your forehead -- seven in total, measuring four channels -- are now made of conductive ink instead of cold metal, the whole thing is more flexible, and rubbery cushions have been added to its ends. These make wearing the headband perfectly comfortable, but otherwise, its form factor remains unchanged. The band itself is available for pre-order for 270 bucks, with the first units expected to start shipping in spring. To make use of the hardware, InteraXon has, of course, developed companion software for iOS and Android (the band communicates with mobile devices via Bluetooth). Last year, we saw a basic demo whereby changes in our brain activity triggered different events in a wintery scene. What the company has built over the past year, however, is much more polished.
Muse brain-sensing headband thoughts-on (video)
Plenty of companies are experimenting with thought-reading gadgets, and in the cluttered South Hall here at CES, we came across the folks from InteraXon showing off their Indiegogo-funded "Muse brain-sensing headband." It measures EEG signals from four forehead sensors and two tucked behind the ears, and sends those brain measurements to other gear via Bluetooth. InteraXon has developed an app suite for mobile devices to showcase the headband's capabilities, including thought-controlled games and brain tracking, exercise and fitness software for improving cognitive function, memory, attention and for reducing stress. That'll come bundled with any purchased units, but an SDK is also available for third-party developers to explore other possibilities. They had a demonstration set up on the show floor, so we thought we'd sit down and take it for a spin. The headband was flexible and surprisingly comfortable, and with a bit of fiddling, we were good to go. One monitor showed brain activity on a couple of complicated graphs, while a scene on a second monitor grew busier as our concentration increased. Watching one graph react to blinking was pretty cool, and once concentration levels reached over 85%, it started to snow on the animated scene. While this obviously isn't very relevant to any potential applications, it was fun to watch the hardware clearly working as intended. You can check out our shots of the headband in the gallery, or check out the video of us trying it out below. Unfortunately we were only allowed to use it for a limited time -- the demonstration was in danger of breaking due to this editors' massive brain. Kevin Wong contributed to this report.
