Finding the perfect song to match what a person is feeling is practically an art form. It's the main reason people spend so much time putting together song playlists for any occasion. But what if you didn't need to hand-pick songs yourself and just let your brain pick them for you? That's the idea behind Neurowear's latest gadget, the Mico headphones, which use a brainwave sensor to detect the wearer's mood and play a song to match.
Aside from an extra bulky appearance, Mico looks like a typical set of over-the-ear headphones, but with the addition of an EEG (electroencephalograph) sensor protruding from the front
After releasing a set of mind-controlled cat ears and a fluffy tail that wags when the user is excited, Neurowear seems to have adapted it's brainwave-reading technology to something a bit more practical in a pair of headphones. The company previously worked on a project called Zen Tunes that analyzed a person's brainwave data while listening to specific songs, so this could be an offshoot of that.
According to the developers, the sensor allows the headphones to analyze a person's brain patterns and determine the wearer's mood
Aside from an extra bulky appearance, Mico looks like a typical set of over-the-ear headphones, but with the addition of an EEG (electroencephalograph) sensor protruding from the front. According to the developers, the sensor allows the headphones to analyze a person's brain patterns and determine the wearer's mood.
When connected to a smart device running an accompanying app, the headphones will play a song chosen from Neurowear's database that matches the detected state of mind. The sides of each ear piece also light up to show when music is playing and will even display symbols to indicate whether the listener is feeling focused, drowsy, or stressed.
Playing songs to match someone's state of mind is definitely an interesting idea – kind of like Pandora, but with your subconscious choosing the playlist. It's hard to say how accurate the song matching software is though, and it's still a tad gimmicky (although less so than the aforementioned cat ears and tail). It might be interesting to see an inverse of the concept however, with the headphones playing an energetic song when detecting a person is drowsy, for example.
Neurowear has yet to reveal any details about when the Mico headphones might be released or at what price, but you can watch the video below to see them demonstrated with Japanese model/photographer Julie Watai.
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