CES 2023 Neurotech News
The Consumer Electronics Show never gets old for me, so here’s this year’s neurotech summary. I was even more excited this year as I am assisting with the launch of a Consumer Technology Association effort to standardize consumer EEG technology — quite a few exhibiting companies are supporting this effort. (Please message me for details.)
Consumer EEG products have proliferated since the last CES, but some of the veterans made forward progress. OpenBCI has been a leader in brain-computer interface technology for years, providing EEG platforms and components used throughout industry and research. At CES they introduced Galea, merging their BCI tech with a VR headset from Varjo. I took a test drive and wish I could have spent more time — changing a VR environment with my own thoughts.
Cognixion, another hybrid EEG/mixed reality device, is focused on the assistive tech market and was featured in the Amazon pavilion at CES. It featured Alexa integration to enhance the products home automation control and other enriched experiences, and announced a new funding round including Northwell Health, New York State’s largest health care provider.
Healium is a VR provider of relaxation, sports healing and more. They have a partnership for an optional add-on Brainlink EEG headband for use in neurofeedback training applications. They also have my favorite product name for this year, Sleepium for their sleep meditation app.
Other consumer EEG companies who exhibited or attended all are worth a look:
Not enough space to detail each of them, but I did note a couple of developments new to me. One was the ear bud form factor for EEG, from Frenz and Wisear. The other new form factor, from Supermind, the Hat! (I tried one on — felt like…a hat!)
Another development was in the EEG application space, a training app for race car driving (!) using the VieStyle.
The value and utility of these consumer EEG devices, which are still much less granular than clinical EEG skullcaps or MRI’s, are improving through advances in data science, machine learning and AI, often as part of so-called digital therapeutics platforms.
Finally, the adjacent field of neuromodulation, or neurostimulation technology, was also present at CES. iMediSync, a Korean company that offers a series of EEG based headsets and products, has also launched a neuromodulation product called iSyncWave.
Other exhibiting companies in this space included CareWear, Charco Neurotech and Rogalife.
Of particular interest to me is recent research on use of photobiomodulation showing some effectiveness in treating cognitive decline. If you find this topic interesting, please see this link to my AFAIK series about neurostimulation as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease, and also covering the FDA and pharmaceutical industry’s unproductive efforts to find an effective treatment for AD.
