Melomind’s brain-soothing helmet gets redesigned for 2016

By Daniel Cooper From engadget

Is it more effective than sitting quietly in a dark room for 20 minutes? Who can say?

Technology can be stressful, and the only way to stop a bad gadget from acting on your brain is with … a good gadget. That’s the idea behind myBrain’s Melomind headset, which uses neuro-feedback to try and calm your troubled head. The device clamps onto your skull and uses an EEG to examine how your brain is feeling at any point. Once it has a picture of your stress levels, it pumps specifically soothing audio back into your ears through a pair of headphones.

Innovations from the first generation of the wearable include entirely fresh hardware that has more accurate electrodes and built-in headphones. In fact, the whole thing looks a lot more like a pair of high-end cans that you wouldn’t be ashamed to use while out and about. In addition, there’s a better user interface and improved music options that have been “scientifically designed” to calm you down. There’s no word — yet — on if the price will change from the $375 first-generation model, but we will update this when we know.

It looks as if 2016 is going to be a year where drug-free, cognitive wearables start to pop up across the technology sphere. This time last year, we tested Thync, a device that promised to, depending on your need, calm you down or get you pumped and ready for a big day out. While the technology behind them, such as EEGs and neurofeedback, are scientifically sound, there’s no real proof that these devices work. Then again, as this gear rises to prominence, it won’t be long before some group of rogue neuroscientists decide to take matters into their own hands and find out.

For more on this story go to: https://www.engadget.com/2016/01/05/melomind-2/