About a Revolutionary Product for Meditation

Equipped with 7 EEG sensors (electroencephalography), Muse is a brain sensing headband used in sleep and meditation. It monitors brain electrical activity and transmits the data to the muse mobile or online application in real-time via Bluetooth, which analyses the received data and gives sound guidance during the mantra meditation. This wearable device assists users to mediate in a more productive and efficient way to achieve the aim of reducing stress, staying calm and focused.

How it works

Muse has 7 EEG sensors on the forehead and behind the ears. EEG refers to recording of the brain’s spontaneous electrical activity over a period of time,

The headset needs to be paired up with the Muse mobile/computer application to play audio guidance and show analysis information.

During the guided meditation session, a soundscape of weather pattern will be played based on user’s brain activity (a real-time feedback on brain, heart, body and breath activity).

If user is calm and focus, the application will play a joyful natural audio, e.g. bird chipping and mild wind blowing. Else, if user is distracted, thunderstorm/ windy audio will be played to remind user to adjust their state of mind.

When the session is over, a complete line graph of user’s brain activity will be generated. User can review and reflect base on the information to achieve a high-qualified meditation mode. In the application, it also offer rewards and challenges system to keep user motivated.

Additional features

I found out that the recent mobile application also includes guided session such as sleep, happiness, and heart meditation which broaden the user spectrum.

Personal Thoughts

In every morning session in my high school life, we are focused to have a meditation process. At the very beginning, I tried to follow the audio (breath-in breath-out..), yet I often fell asleep with the calming music and environment. Recalling those days,  those were enjoyable sleeping sessions but definitely not efficient or productive meditation. Having the Muse headband, I think it would provide incentive and motivation for me to go for a proper meditation session and eventually reduce my eczema flares.

Pros

• create incentive for meditation and reduce users’ stress level through usage
• fresh idea, no substitute available in the market
• good UI/UX design, a easy navigate user interface and great user experience in the application
• ios/android/ window supported
• product appearance nicely designed- light weight, compatible as a wearable device
• creates a detail meditation report/dairy with actual data
• perfect for people who prefer mantra meditation with sound guidance
• recently added the sleep meditation mode for newer models to welcome a larger user group

Cons

• must be paired up with a mobile/pc device for it to work
• expensive- costing from $350usd ($475sgd) per device
• narrow target users- people with regular meditation routine
• low battery life – need to recharge after 3-4 hours of usage using usb cable
• some may say the rewards system oppose the idea of meditation
• short product life- with approximately 4 years life per product

References:

https://choosemuse.com/?sscid=a1k4_frqod 
https://travelaway.me/portable-health-gadgets/

https://www.mindtecstore.com/InteraXon-Muse-2-EEG-Headset-Set

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.interaxon.muse&hl=en&gl=US