Novel Neurotech Form Factors
New design paradigms may bring non-invasive neural interfaces to the masses
The promise of wearables
Wearable technology has seen a boom in recent years — and this trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. According to Grandview Research, the global wearable tech market was valued at over $60bn as of 2022 and is expected to see significant growth over the rest of this decade, with a predicted global CAGR of 14.6% up to 2030 (12.9% in North America). Grandview indicates that wrist-wear is currently the most popular wearable tech modality and is expected to remain in the top spot for the near future. Wristwatches and bracelets are firmly embedded fashion staples, making the wrist-wear sector of wearable tech an intuitive and familiar form for users.
Well-designed wearable technology allows consumers to add function and utility to an already-established form, all while maintaining the object’s original function. Taking wrist-worn as an example, research indicates that a large portion of the general public appreciates the benefits that wrist-worn wearables can offer, especially when it comes to fitness tracking, sleep monitoring, and other related health metrics. Additionally, many of the wrist-worn technologies available to consumers today also offer functionality that had in a previous era been delivered to users in other forms, such as an ability to check messages, answer phone calls, browse the internet, and more.
Challenges to widespread adoption of wearable neurotechnology
The robust wearable technology sector signals a big opportunity for consumer-facing, non-invasive neural interfaces. But there is a key obstacle that lies in the path to actualizing this opportunity — the technology’s form factor. High-quality biometric data can be obtained more reliably from research grade non-invasive neural interfaces that offer high-channel counts and function-focused design. While this is true, the well established limitations of these research grade devices, such as high-costs and poor usability, indicate that consumers will be reluctant to adopt this caliber of device for daily use. It feels safe to assume that the BCI device pictured below, or even the famous Screen Dress developed by fashion-tech designer Anouk Wipprecht and neurotech OG g.tec, will not become mainstream fashion trends anytime soon.
The question then remains, how could non-invasive neural interfaces become adopted by the masses? Several commercial companies and research labs are already working on building an answer to this question. These organizations’ collective approaches suggest the industry has reached a consensus: to get the general population to dip their toes into the sea of neurotechnological innovation, the technology needs to be delivered in a form that fits in with their existing lifestyles. Different groups, however, are exploring ways to meet this requirement in a variety of ways.
Novel neurotechnology form factors
Earphones
Wisear is developing a technology stack predicated on a neurotechnology-enabled set of earphones, allowing consumers to control their digital devices hands and voice-free. Their co-founder and CEO Yacine Achiakh stresses the importance of integrating neural sensors into items or systems that consumers are already using.
It appears that Apple shares Wisear’s mindset on this matter. Their recent patent filing (Biosignal Sensing Device Using Dynamic Selection of Electrodes) suggests a future in which we find EEG sensors embedded in Airpods.
Another entrant into the EEG-enabled headphones space is Neurable. Their partnership with audio brand Master & Dynamic resulted in a pair of smart headphones that aim to help users avoid burnout by identifying their periods of peak focus. Neurable’s MW75 Neuro is an over-ear headphone, unlike the smaller in-ear devices of Wisear and Apple.
Sleep masks
Many people wear sleep masks to help block out external light while they try to get some shut-eye. Enter the team at Bia Neuroscience, who are developing a smart sleep mask that uses fNIRS to measure sleep stages as part of a neurofeedback-based sleep support.
Wrist-worn devices
In 2019 Meta (then Facebook) acquired CTRL-Labs, a neural interface start-up developing a wearable band to measure neural signals at the wrist for use in the control of electronic devices. Five years later — and after a lengthy period of stealth — work born out of this acquisition is starting to make waves. A group of engineers at Meta recently released a preprint discussing their development of a “generic noninvasive neuromotor interface for human-computer interaction”. The device uses surface electromyography (sEMG) to capture motor signals sent from the brain to the nerves and muscles in the wearer’s upper extremities. Packaged within hardware little bigger than a wristwatch, this device can decode roughly 1–2 gestures per second, or handwriting at 17 words per minute. Importantly, the device operates in a generic manner, meaning it doesn’t need to be calibrated to function effectively for individual users (although algorithm personalization was seen to boost performance by 30%).
VR-embedded
It’s clear that consumer neurotech and virtual / augmented / mixed reality (VR / AR / MR) offer something of a symbiotic pairing. VR / AR / MR users, by definition, are likely to have already accepted a head-worn device — so embedding neurotech sensors within this established device carries little downside, and may present significant benefits such as improving the control of a virtual environment or creating a more immersive experience.
A number of companies are exploring this synergy already:
- Cognixion’s Axon-R embeds EEG sensors within an AR headset that additionally uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide assistive functionality to users with communication disabilities.
- OpenBCI’s Galea similarly combines a whole host of neural sensors with a VR headset to enable a range of VR use cases, including gaming.
- Apple also has also sought to patent a “health sensing retention band” that appears to include electrodes in the head-strap of their new Apple Vision Pro.
Residual challenges
Despite promising growth in the variety of neurotech form factors seen on the market and in development, obstacles to building non-invasive neurotechnology in a highly-adoptable manner remain. A general rule of thumb is that the most adoptable wearable or daily use products tend to have a small or sleek physical form. This inherently limits the number of sensors that can be included in the device, which therefore restricts the range and quality of the data that can be captured, itself a limiting factor in the ultimate utility of the device. While Moore’s Law hints at the ongoing miniaturization of technology, devices that are sufficiently small to be widely accepted by consumers may be some years in the making.
Conclusion
The observed trend of consumer-grade neurotechnology merging with widely-used consumer technology products, such as smart watches and headphones, is a promising first step towards mass adoption of neurotech. As more tech users experience the deep and useful insights offered by non-invasive neural recordings, as well as the convenience of using these recordings to control digital devices, the consumer sector may awaken to the suggestion that an expanded form entails expanded features. This increased recognition, joined with a number of other factors — growing awareness among developers of the benefits of leveraging established form factors to house neurotech, decreasing sizes of hardware, improved software performance to overcome hardware limitations — may dovetail to ultimately help the general public overcome today’s factors that limit adoption of consumer neurotech.
The next few years will prove revealing for this sector. A unique confluence of market forces, technology development, and consumer behavior suggest that a step-change in consumer engagement with neurotech may be on the horizon. While it’s impossible to predict what will happen next — one thing we can know for sure is that it will be interesting.
Written by Robert Murcko and edited by Sophie Valentine.
Robert Murcko is a biomedical engineer and builder interested in all things neurotechnology. For more of his writing, subscribe to his monthly neurotech newsletter. To see his long form interviews and conversations with innovators in the neurotechnology space follow Dynamic Neurotech on YouTube or search for the Dynamic Neurotech Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Sophie Valentine works at the intersection of tech-for-good, product, digital health, and neurotechnology. Her background is in experimental psychology and cognitive neuropsychology research, with degrees from Bristol University.
