This company set out to build a device
that would allow users to move objects
with their minds. What they wound up
creating is a headband that helps people
meditate. It was very very difficult to
build a thing that would move objects
with thought but in the process we had
to teach ourselves how to think in
really focused and relaxed ways and so
we sort of accidentally acquired the
skills of meditation by building Muse.
The 250 dollar wearable band called the
Muse 2, measures a wider variety of
signals and the original Muse including
brainwaves, body movement, heart rate, and
breathing. It's something that you wear
across the forehead and it slips down
behind your ears. There are sensors on
the inside here you can see those these
gold metal sensors picks up the brain
signal from behind your ears. The device is intended for beginner meditators
providing them with real-time feedback
on their mental activity and bodily
signals. The Muse translates brain waves
into weather sounds I got to give it a try.
(Meditation sounds)
When the weather gets stormy, that's a
clue that your mind has wandered and
your goal is to calm the weather and
thereby calm your mind
news also created an interactive
installation that pits multiple
meditators against each other
visualizing their individual experiences
on adjacent light panels. What you'll see
is on one side when someone is very calm
and centered
it'll be just a really subtle blue glow
and as their mind becomes more busy they
lose their focus you'll see the Blues
turn into pinks and reds and yellows. 
Neuroscientist Andreas Cantus and I put
it to the test. For this calibration find
a comfortable position and close your eyes.
Muse is now listening to your brain signals.
(Meditation sounds)
Afterwards, the Muse app showed a graph of how we did. So how stressed out was I in
that meditation. It took you about 45
seconds, almost a minute, to chill out.
Yep. And this is when you heard the rains
drop down, you heard birds.
That was so birds were good? The birds were good.
Muse isn't the only meditation gadget on the market.
Other companies like Spire, Thync
and Melomind, also make variables to
help people calm their minds. But this
conscious says users need to remember
that a device alone can't tell us
everything about our brains.
I thinksometimes these companies can over
promise in the sense that they neglect
to tell you that brain waves are for one
thing just one part of the way the brain
works. So let's take meditation as an
example. Your hardware might be telling
you that your brain is in a state of
alpha. Well, that doesn't necessarily mean
that you're meditating. There are
different reasons you might be in alpha
and it might not have anything to do
with meditation. It just might be that
you know you're relaxed. We're sort of
seduced by this this idea that you know
we can look inside our brains and
that'll tell us something, new that we
forget that our behaviors a reflection
of our brains and something as simple as
how you feel is a better indicator of
whether you're focused.
I don't regularly meditate, so getting
data about my brainwaves is encouraging
and unique. It also gave me a sense of
how quickly it took me to feel truly
relaxed which was a little longer than I
expected.
But it's a much pricier option than a
simple meditation app like headspace
which might be a better choice for
people who don't need or want that level
of feedback to keep up a meditation
practice.
