Body Mind Spirit at the Consumer Electronics Show

CES 2022 was a much reduced version, one-third the size in both attendance and exhibits, but the general health tech sector was fairly busy. (FYI, everyone wore masks; proof of vax or recent negative test required. Kudos to CTA on how they handled this challenge.) As the giants in the area of video and automotive technology were absent, health tech in general seemed to be one of the larger remaining set exhibitors.

Here is an abbreviated set of observations; I’m working on a longer neurotech market report, updating previous versions, and will announce that in a few weeks. I call this article Body Mind Spirit after the genre of books oriented toward self-improvement with a spiritual dimension. My work in the last few years on technology in the service of mental and cognitive health is generally consistent with that orientation.

BODY

I feel I should start out with the Human Touch “ergonomic zero gravity recliners” a relaxation chair, because it’s really one of the iconic scenes when you’ve been walking the CES exhibit floor for hours.

The other iconic scene is this, jetlagged arrivals from Asia, nodding off while checking messages.

At CES, technology directed at specific treatments straddles the line between clinical and self-help. I didn’t see any jet-lag solutions, but the Reliefband is a wristband to fight motion sickness. And back on the furniture front, Neurosonic offers a low-frequency vibration device that can be integrated with furniture, characterized as a sleep improvement solution. ResMed is a sleep apnea/CPAP product that is available with a prescription. Includes both a home and a travel model, AirMini.

Sound and vision are where CES legacy TV and stereo technologies evolve into health care.

Retina Scope is a diagnostic tool for eye disease screening. It’s characterized as moving screening from the specialist to the primary care practitioner. I’m really not sure this is for a consumer audience. But perhaps it’s that some medical technology companies see CES as a place to raise consumer awareness and get them to “ask their doctor.”

Re:Vive — a vision diagnostic and augmentation platform, aimed at patient screening for clinicians.

EyeSystem delivers 5 treatment modes, activating a healthy blood circulation capacity and reducing intraocular pressure that helps you support eye health, reduce ocular fatigue, overcome stress, and beautify wrinkles, dark circles, and puffiness effortlessly. A sleep mask with vibration, acupressure, infrared heat, magnets and ionization.

Senaptec — Another vision product: “The Senaptec Strobe training eyewear is designed to help you process vision faster and more efficiently. This provides a unique edge for athletes to perform at a higher level more consistently and with better decision making. As the lenses flicker on and off, it is harder to process information, which helps the brain focus on visual tasks. The resulting heightened vision capability can improve one’s eye-hand coordination, movement, balance, and reaction time. Most athletes notice improvement after one 15-minute session.” Wow.

Nuheara — “Now you can hear what you want to hear, at the volume that’s comfortable for you.” What I’m still looking for is super powers — like hearing what they are whispering about me across the room.

Withings — I bought one of their scales ten years ago, still works but not much added functionality over the years. Now they appear to be going bigger. “The Body Scan smart scale that can monitor segmental body composition, heart rate and vascular age, via measurements that assess nerve activity and heart rhythm using a six-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). The company said its investigational device is expected to be available in the second half of 2022, pending FDA clearance and CE marking…CEO Mathieu Letombe remarked that “with Body Scan, we will turn the morning weigh-in into a sophisticated home health check with access to holistic health data and personal health programmes created by medical professionals.”

Assistive Tech

Assistive technology is chronically underfunded because the people who need it don’t have a lot of money and insurance coverage is fairly weak. I didn’t see a lot of progress at CES this year.

Xandar Kardian — provides “radar algorithms” processing — 15M radar signals/sec that reacts to micro-vibration patterns generated from our body to empower automation for healthcare and real-tech.” The use case is basically “Presence and vacancy detection”, keeping an eye on grandma. Seems like kind of overkill?

MUVE — ride service app for accessibility transportation. Once again, the differently abled community last in line for innovation, but at least it’s here now.

Parrots Inc. — an AI-enhanced “assistive parrot, perched on their wheelchair or shoulder, for people needing communication assistance.” Given all the memes ridiculing AI translations these days, I’ll be curious to see the progress here.

Emotivi — “video calls for the elderly…made simple”. Years ago, I tried to help my mother-in-law transition to a smart phone in early stages of Alzheimer’s, and this kind of thing can be a lot harder than you think. Found this one at the French pavilion — got to say, the French and the Koreans did not let COVID deter them one bit this year from attending. And even the Romanians and the Ukrainians managed to get a few companies to Vegas. Congratulations in difficult times!

CarePredict — a smart wearable to track your elderly loved one. My mother-in-law has resisted wearing her hearing aid for years.

Quantified Self

IASO Smart — a “pain data analysis device” was introduced by Korean company Wellscare (I think perhaps the Koreans should reconsider how this name looks in English.) They have previously shown the IASO Ultra, which “combines low-level laser technology, blue LED therapy, heat therapy and vibration massage to treat…various pains in various areas of the body.”

MedWand — Not quite the Star Trek tricorder, but lots packed in here — heart EKG, lungs/respiration, temperature, oxygenation, look inside ear exam, look inside nose/throat/mouth exam, listen to abdomen exam. Getting closer to telehealth that incorporates actual data.

MoveSmarter — “We identify gait patterns and compare it to proper movements. Whether it is for a health treatment, sport competition, or simply for your daily life’s body movement and body stress management.”

Nuralogix — “Our technology allows you to measure your vital health indicators with a 30 second video selfie from your mobile device.”

Vivoo — In the COVID era, an at-home wellness test nails the Zeitgeist. Now including a home urine test…

Opteev — In addition to wellness, CES was lousy with air quality devices/detectors/enhancers. You could probably build a device that detects the hundred-odd air quality devices. Opteev was my favorite for two reasons — first, the product is the ViraWarn “Personal-space Instantaneous Airborne COVID Detector — When viral particles drift through the engineered media they produce unique polarized signatures which are detected by ViraWarn’s advanced biosensors and sent to an onboard processor to screen out false positives using specialized and tested algorithms.” The second reason is the target market, illustrated below:

Abbott — distributed the BinaxNOW instant COVID test. Two tests were distributed to every CES attendee as a souvenir. You didn’t need to take the test to get into the Show, but maybe your family wanted to know before you return home from the cesspool that is Las Vegas.

MindMics — not a brain reader, just detailed heart monitoring (“infrasonic hemodynography”) to capture clinically meaningful biometrics accurately within real-time.

Garmin was always a big player at CES, more for navigation wearables. Garmin Venu2 smart watch appears to do the health things any smart watch does — didn’t quite see the Mind connection they were touting.

Evosonics — CES used to have tons of strange foot baths and other Asian health care devices that never seemed to catch on in the U.S. Note the acupressure map underneath. Evosonics claims to have “found the optimal Vibroacoustic Range Evosonics Hz that activates tissues of degenerated cells and relaxes the mind.”

Hey, a good foot massage does wonders for my mind, so let’s transition to the mind/brain area.

MIND

So, the brain is part of the body, but the activity and disorders are often felt by the individual as an interior phenomenon, the sensations of the mind. At CES, we see broadly two types of products trying to bridge the brain/mind gap — one aimed at a computerized interface to the brain, sort of a quantified brain, and the other type being actual technological/electromagnetic signals as treatment of the brain/mind system, which I’ll group under the term Neuromodulation.

Brain Computer Interfaces

I’ve been tracking consumer-priced brain interfaces for years. A lot of the established players (Muse, Emotiv) were not in Vegas this year, but there was a little action.

Healium — a newer player who was at CES, and took advantage of low exhibitor turnout to snag exhibit space right in the Central Plaza, the main entrance. I hope that will call attention to the category as well, historically consigned to the free-for-all in the Sands Convention Center ghetto. (OK, that’s not fair, especially this year when the Central Hall was vast expanses of empty space formerly occupied by the heavy hitters like Sony, LG, Samsung, etc.)

I test drove Healium at the show. As a long-time user of Muse, which just provides neurofeedback from electrodes in a headband, I would say the VR environment is an advantage in shutting out distractions, and providing active engagement with a peaceful (rainforest) environment, which you move through just fast enough to keep engaged. The disadvantage is extra set-up. Not sure based on one session how it compares with Muse performance in dialing down my brainwaves through meditation. Healium recently won a small business innovation grant to explore stress reduction with Air Force service members.

Neurable — founder Ramses Alcibiades was a speaker at CES, but they did not exhibit. Their headphone product is a 16 channel EEG built into headphones, and uses music to assist with relaxation or concentration.

NextMind — They were scheduled to be in the Central Hall, but appear to have cancelled. They were a highlight when introduced at CES 2020, and are now shipping at a 399 Euro price point. They are targeting translating brain waves into actions, such as controlling VR or AR environments.

OpenMind Neurotechnologies — In development for 5 years and rolling out in past two years, the use case is neurofeedback for employee “cognitive and emotional training”, so not a direct to consumer play yet. Their headset has skin sensors and heart rate monitor, plus eye-tracking, and uses Near-InfraRed Scanning for brain signal data.

iMedisync — Here’s a Korean company straddling both neurofeedback and neuromodulation, and having a very large exhibit at CES. The iSyncBrain is an EEG/HRV device, gathering data for biomarkers and early detection. It supports analytics for early screening of mild cognitive impairment. The iSyncWave product is a NIRS headset plus LED for photobiomodulation. Target markets are both consumers and clinicians. Perhaps they can have their translation or marketing team revisit the term “telemental care.”

Wisear — This is a set of earphones recording EEG from on ear electrodes, claimed to give “comparable” data to electrodes on the scalp. They plan to license the technology to audio manufacturers. So, this seems less about improvement in data granularity of BCI devices but perhaps a more familiar form factor.

IDUN Technologies — One step further, IDUN claims to bring neurotechnology into earbuds — “Our proprietary DRYODE™ sensor material provides best-in-class signal quality from one of the most promising locations for health monitoring on the human body, the ear canal.”

Megnosis — Devices using EEG, NIRS and deep learning for detection of mild cognitive impairment, and a variety of neurostimulation technologies, such as TMS and tCS for treatment or prevention. From the Korean pavilion at CES, hard to tell if this is consumer facing or clinical.

Olive Healthcare – Near Infra-Red Scanning (NIRS) has had a lot of money thrown at it for reducing MRI costs. No major breakthroughs so far, so in the meantime…quantified belly fat.

Neuromodulation

Neuromodulation as a field is roughly divided between clinical devices developed by major medical technology companies, and the Wild West of technology that seeks only FDA approval for safety without any research or claims of medical efficacy.

Even the mainstream feels compelled to support a professional society, the North American Neuromodulation Society, which presents and publishes medical research and best practices in journals and conferences. NANS had a tiny booth at CES this year, unmanned when I came by, and with no signage, only a single handout “10 Things to Know About Neuromodulation”.

Abbott is one of the main supporters of NANS, and the company CEO Robert Ford was one of the keynote speakers at CES 2022. Their appearance is also a bridge from big science / big pharma into the consumer products world. Ford highlighted a few initiatives. One featured

Dr. Fiona Gupta, neurologist and director of movement disorders, at Mt. Sinai Health System in New York. He showed a video of Dr. Gupta directing a patient via telehealth to use a handheld neuromodulation device from Abbott, which calms Parkinson’s tremors in the patient.

An interesting first time exhibitor was INBRAIN Neuroelectronics. They are a supplier to neuromodulation device manufacturers. “We are developing the next generation of neuroelectronic therapies powered by machine learning. Our graphene-brain interfaces have the capability of reading at a resolution never seen before, as well as detecting therapy-specific biomarkers and triggering highly focal adaptive neuromodulation for increased outcomes in personalized neurological therapies…existing brain interfaces are all metal-based, with considerable restrictions for miniaturization and signal resolution.”

This is interesting to me as I’ve been searching for progress in the price and performance of EEG electrodes and not seeing much movement. INBRAIN also boasts a partnership with Merck, placing them squarely in the major medical technology camp. This partnership is focused on vagus nerve stimulation therapies targeting “chronic diseases within Merck’s target therapy areas.” (very cagey there)

But mostly this year, neuromodulation at CES was on the wild west side of things.

YBrain — Their product is POLA, a “micro electroceutical, patented non-invasive trigeminal nerve stimulation.” As I keep saying, Korea really rocked it at CES in general, but what is a trigeminal nerve? The company has other products used in hospital settings.

Banda Neutonica — A sleep band with music for brain stimulation; “precise rhythms and patterns for relaxation, and ELF magnetic field in right position for affinity stimulation.” OK.

Hapbee — A headband or necklace that emits “ultra-low energy signals” recorded from a molecule’s magnetic frequency…The signals replicate natural compounds effect, like energy from caffeine, without any of the side effects.” Again, OK

Sunflower — Their product is called Just Light. “Light Therapy supports our body’s natural healing process without chemicals, drugs, or side effects. Sunflower brings precision Light Therapy home.” They do not cite research, but are “based on clinical insights.” Red light therapy uses red wavelengths of light to treat skin issues like wrinkles; is claimed to stimulate cells to repair skin damage. That flower in the picture is a red light lamp.

CareWear — light patch form factor for red light therapy.

REVAI — claims vagus nerve stimulation can accelerate verbal learning and language acquisition. There is some mixed research that indicates vagus nerve stimulation can improve depression syndromes and reduce frequency of epileptic seizures. It appears to be generally safe.

Neurive — a vagus nerve stimulation product.

Digital Therapeutics

Apart from direct interface to or stimulation of the brain, there is a class of digital applications that claim to identify conditions or facilitate various therapies through a digital behavioral interface.

Neurocircuit — provides a healthy habit regime based on brain science. This one made sense to me until I saw they had an app for a “customized hair loss check up.”

Baracoda — a design shop for digital therapeutics.

Omron Healthcare — a long time CES exhibitor and manufacturer of heart health products such as blood pressure monitors and some “electrotherapy” devices, or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS); TENS devices are generally considered effective but with a wide range of results depending on multiple variables. This year for the first time in my memory they have introduced a digital therapeutic approach to diabetes care.

Scanbo — “aims to construct a digital ecosystem bringing the internet, artificial intelligence, deep learning and an individual’s biological, behavioral and psychological profile together to optimize health care.”

Cerebral — founder and chief medical officer David Mou was featured in a panel on Mental Health and Virtual Care. They claim to be data driven, “tracking clinical outcomes continuously at scale.” Mou said at one point, clinicians paid by how much you do, not how well you do it — “90% of mental health clinicians do not measure outcomes.” Sobering. News from Cerebral is they are starting to add direct measurement of data to the platform, such as wearables, apps reading tone of voice to infer mental state, etc. Bigger news was they have signed gymnast Simon Biles to a promotional partnership. Cerebral seems to have won the endorsement sweepstakes in that regard, but it’s great to see Ms. Biles continue to lean in and do some good with all the attention she’s received.

SPIRIT

So, Body, Mind, Spirit. CES isn’t a convention that has a spiritual bone in its body, so to speak. But so much of what I’m reporting here, taken together, is about addressing the well-being of the individual in the broadest sense of the term — physical, mental, and spiritual, however you describe that last term.

Here’s at least one exhibitor, a CES Innovation Award Winner, who doesn’t shy away from the term.

Happy Mama is a maternal health and wellness platform for addressing expectant and new mothers’ needs, comprised of a mobile app and customizable clinician dashboard, and includes: — Physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and socio-economic support services and resources — Remote monitoring and video chat — Live coaches, specialists, midwives, doulas, community services, and peer groups — Live and pre-recorded social and educational events — A decision support tool and resources for maternal health care teams that simultaneously empowers and supports the perinatal needs of women (pre-pregnancy through one year postpartum.)

Happy trails to all — see you in the future!