Headband Provides Head Start for Mind Control
Heralded as a pivotal step toward mind control and the ability to manipulate physical objects with our brainwaves, the new Muse headband is at the forefront of many people’s minds—literally.
“The technology will know what’s on your mind, and it will respond. It may seem like science fiction now, but we are making it a reality,” says Ariel Garten, cofounder of Interaxon, the Toronto-based developer of the Muse headband.
Interaxon said the Muse headband was created as a tool to help people regain or improve their focus and cognitive abilities—and possibly even reduce stress.
Similar to the popular Google Glass, the Muse headband fits like a pair of glasses, except it exchanges the usual frames for a sleek band that runs across the wearer’s forehead. The band contains sensors on the forehead and behind the ears.
Muse can’t actually control your mind or allow you to levitate objects with your brainwaves, but the headband can show your level of focus; and indicate the difference between thoughts that show you’re agitated or that your mind is wandering.
Currently, Muse has a corresponding app that translates your brainwave data. Exercises act as guided meditation. One exercise depicts clouds, and the user can hear the wind pick up as his or her mind becomes more active. To complete the exercise, users focus on their breathing to try to calm their thoughts and clear away the clouds. Another similar exercise involves birds landing on a beach.
After completing the exercise, the app logs some stats of your experience. Although the metrics kept by the app are meant to help you calm your mind and increase your ability to produce a relaxed state, you can’t help but get excited at the “gamification” of the data. The app awards points and values for how you engage with the exercise. It seems you could easily get hooked on beating your score while getting in some great meditation. This component of the application provides excitement about what this could mean for a future Muse game market.
So what makes Muse so special? Well, it could be the start of something completely awesome. Garten explained to CNET what the development of Muse could lead to: "You'll be controlling your home lighting systems and you'll be answering your telephone using things like Muse. That's ten, fifteen years in the future."
