This Headband Allows You To Control Machines And Play Games With Your Mind, And It Is Retailed For $399

A headband allowing you to control objects around you may sound like stuff of a sci-fi movie but it isn’t as now you can buy one of them and feel like you have some sort of super power.

This invention brought NextMind, a French neurotech startup, the CES 2020’s “Best of Innovation” award. The headband was made available for pre-order on Tuesday.

With the price of $399, user will have a headband packed with AI, allowing you to control home appliances and even games with just your thoughts. Those with engineering skills can design their own, more advanced functions on top of the existing ones.

As users can use NextMind’s device in any way they want, Sid Kouider, the company’s CEO, said the possibilities are endless.

NextMind headband is the latest invention in the field of brain-computer interface, an area Elon Musk is also interested in.

What the headband does is to use the sensors placed against users’ scalp to gather neural signals of the visual cortex. The information is sent to a computer, which translates the signals into commands other machines can understand.

NextMind headband works similarly to EEG machines found in hospitals but it is more portable and users don’t need to do any special skin preparation beforehand.

According to Kouider, the company is passionate about making NextMind’s DevKit known to as many developers in VR/AR applications as possible. He believes the tech was a game changer as it offered a fully immersive experience.

Fun and handy as it may seem, the current offer of NextMind is the most suitable for developers who want to take advantage of the company’s algorithms and hardware to build their own use cases. However, those with engineering skills may find the headband an interesting invention to play around with as it comes with some mini games and demos.

According to Kouider, ever since the technology was introduced at CES 2020 half a year ago, it has received lots of attention and interest from developers in entertaining and gaming industries, the fields NextMind intends to focus mainly on the next few years.

A self-driving company has also shown interest in the tech and the company is considering some projects with, what it said, a major car company. However, Kouider refused to say what company that is.

If the tech finds its use in the self-driving world, in the future, users can control their cars without putting their hands on a wheel or an interface.

NextMind’s developer kits are currently available in Australia, the US and Europe, and will be shipped in September.

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