The 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which took place in January 2020, showcased a number of new technologies. Considering the U.S. consumer technology industry is worth $401 billion, product categories included many of the latest innovations, ranging from 3D printing, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality, to self-driving cars, smart homes, and even smart cities.
Particular items of interest this year involved a "brain-computer interface." This type of technology allows users to interact with devices using their own neural activity. Several exhibits were oriented around health, wellness, and accessibility for people with disabilities.
NextMind
The company NextMind showcased a headset that measures brain activity in the user's visual cortex. The goal? Allow the headset wearer the ability to control a device by creating commands using sight.
By forming a "neural feedback loop," individuals are able to focus their attention on an object while the technology translates that into a command based on the neural activity in the visual cortex, which can communicate characteristics of a person's vision.
According to NextMind CEO Sid Kouider, "We've got to a point where we are able to extract your attentional focus."
"You don't see with your eyes, your eyes are just a medium," said Kouider. "Your vision is in your brain, and we analyze your vision in your brain and we can know what you want to act upon and then we can modify that to basically create a command."
That said, NextMind is selling a developer kit, and the technology isn't technically available yet.
Urgotech
Created by the company Urgotech, Urgonight is headset that uses "neurofeedback therapy" to measure the user's brain activity and display that information in real-time. The objective is to improve the person's quality of sleep through games, exercises, and various behaviors.
"With Urgonight, we're going to help you improve your sleep, and train your brain to learn to sleep better," said Urgotech CEO Guirec Le Lous.
Based on the device's clinical trails, Urgonight could help individuals fall asleep 40% faster and may reduce sleep disturbances by half. These results sound promising, considering that as many as 70 million people in the U.S. have chronic insomnia.
BrainCo
BrainCo's prosthetic hand senses the user's muscle signals and then uses an algorithm to improve function over time. That could mean more dexterity and accuracy than ever seen before with prosthetic hands, which would be a game-changer--at half the cost as a standard prosthesis.
"We've developed the world's most affordable A.I.-powered prosthetic hand," said Max Newlon, BrainCo's president. "[It] gives amputees control of the prosthetic just like you or I would control our hands."
According to Newlon, "The thing that sets this prosthetic apart, is after enough training, [a user] can control individual fingers and it doesn't only rely on predetermined gestures. It's actually like a free-play mode where the algorithm can learn from him, and he can control his hands just like we do."
BrainCo is currently awaiting approval from the FDA.