Paris-based team shows stress-cutting gear at CES

Paris-based myBrain Technologies chose a fitting environment to unveil their first product: the melomind headset and smartphone app, designed to help people relax. That venue is the CES 2015 in Las Vegas. The melomind headgear provides a reading of brain waves, which goes over to your smartphone.

Elizabeth Lopatto from The Verge said you put on the headgear, and earphones to your phone, and music flows through to give you a sense of how relaxed you are, and maybe to relax you further. Mark Sullivan of VentureBeat also explained how it works: The headset "uses several inside contact points to measure electrical activity in the brain. It then sends the data in real time to the mobile app, which plays music to match the user's mental state."

CNET was also on hand to observe the device: "The helmet-like wearable from myBrain has electrodes on each of the four spikes that protrude from the core device. These electrodes measure your brain waves like a standard electroencephalogram (EEG) would, and transmit data on your brain activity to the connected app." The music component is interesting: myBrain sound designers composed the music used for relaxation, said Sullivan in VentureBeat. As Dumas described it to Sullivan, the user can control the type of music being played by his or her progress toward relaxation during a session. Each relaxation session lasts 15 minutes. The device will be available by the end of the year. The company is taking pre-orders on their website. The device is priced at $299.

The company co-founders are Yohan Attal, PhD and Thibaud Dumas, PhD. Scientific board members include individuals from such institutions as the brain imaging center at McGill, stroke center in Paris and Pasteur Institute.

Dumas, who has a PhD in neuroscience, said the team expertise includes work for years on brain technologies. Once you put the product on your head it measures your brain signal which goes right into your smartphone or tablet, and modulates your music. The goal is to help people cope with stress and to become more relaxed. The product was developed in collaboration with the Brain and Spine Institute in Paris.

A New York University note provides a brief overview of biofeedback, saying that Biofeedback is a process that enables individuals to learn how to change physiological activity for the purpose of improving health and performance. Personal Stress Relievers are devices that feed back physiological activity to the user. The idea is to foster the ability to self-regulate emotional and physiological changes associated with stress.

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