Muse Headband Opens Way to Enhanced Human-Computer Interface

June 5, 201412:01 PM MST

Muse Promises to Enhance Concentration, Mental Capabilities http://singularityhub.com/2014/06/04/headband-opens-the-door-to-brain-to-computer- applications/

Canadian company InteraXon is taking the brain-to-computer applications field to a whole new level. They have created a headband called Muse which will actually enable the user to track his or her brain activity for an hour a day to help the user improve his or her power

of concentration.

Muse is simply a headband fitted with EEG sensors.

According to co-founder co-founder Trevor Coleman“The same way taking your pulse will tell you how your body is doing during physical exercise, this will tell you how your brain is doing during mental exercise. ” Coleman claims that this new device will empower the wearer to concentrate and maintain focus on a single thing. The machine can detect when the user's mind wanders--the wearer will receive feedback, informing him or her that the mind is wandering and it is time to refocus.

Over the last decade critics have complained that technological breakthroughs such as smartphones and iPods are interfering with people's ability to concentrate. Smartphones have made Facebook and social networking so ubiquitous that users often have difficulty staying focused during conversations, lectures, classes, movies, and other daily activities.

Evidently, while technology taketh away, it can also giveth. Muse offers the possibility of a technology that will act as an "electronic guardian" over the user's tendency to be distracted. As most artists, scientists, writers, and inventors will attest, they only become truly creative once they are in what many refer to as the "zone," what others call "the flow." At those times of peak concentration, the brain seems to operate at an indescribably intense level of mental activity in which the mind seems to transcend its functional limitations.

This mental "zone" is the creative seedbed from which emerge breakthrough inventions, artistic creations and original ideas, concepts, and insights.

We can only hope technologies such as Muse, which operate according to sound biofeedback principles, can help people achieve higher mental concentration and therefore become more productive. Such breakthroughs can only open the pathway to a better tomorrow for everyone.

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