When most people hear the word "wearable," they probably think of an Apple Watch. For a long time, wearables have been defined by the smartwatch and all of the health-tracking, discreet notification-delivering prowess they offer. But it's been a long time since the first Apple Watch rolled onto the scene — over 10 years, in fact — and a lot has happened in the world of wearables since then. Potentially, too much, actually.
When I say there's a wearable for basically everything, I'm only being a little hyperbolic. Take this recent entrant from a company called Sabi, which crams wearable technology into… a beanie. What exactly does a wearable/beanie do, you ask? Well, read your brain, of course. Sabi says that using electroencephalography (EEG) and loads of tiny sensors inside the beanie, their wearable can act as a brain-to-computer interface and translate your thoughts into text on a separate device. The device can apparently populate words on a screen at a rate of about 30 words per minute.
A device like this has applications most directly for those with accessibility needs, but theoretically, anyone could use it. Brain-sensing wearables with EEG are an increasingly competitive category — I should know, since I've tried some.
Audio products, for example, like the ones made by a company called NextSense, promise to shove the benefits of a health wearable inside a small set of wireless earbuds. Using EEG, NextSense's Smartbuds can monitor your sleep in real-time, which is a difference compared to other sleep-tracking wearables. Counterparts like Oura's smart rings infer sleep through biometric signals like heart rate and body temperature, which is slightly less direct. The Smartbuds can also improve sleep by playing strategically timed pink noise.
NextSense isn't alone. Somnee, which offers a sleep headband, takes a similar approach. Its EEGs read your brain waves, but instead of pink noise, it applies 15 minutes of light electrical stimulation — called transcranial alternating current stimulation — to mimic sleep signals and help you fall asleep faster. I've tried it, and it's strange to say the least, but for some people it might actually improve sleep.
If EEGs in a beanie and brain-zapping headbands don't seem exciting enough, there's also an EEG inside a gaming headset. HyperX and a company called Neurable built one that reads your brain waves and assesses your focus levels. If it detects that you're distracted, you can take a brief meditative exercise involving dots on a screen that shift into a single orb. The idea is to increase focus and boost performance in competitive games that require sharp reaction time and mental acuity.
Brain-reading wearables are still in their relative infancy, with no concrete evidence on their effectiveness in tasks like raising focus or improving sleep. But that hasn't stopped companies from trying. Even Apple wants a piece of the wearable crossover pie — its AirPods Pro 3 shove health sensors into the company's iconic wireless earbuds to make them part health wearable, part audio product. Sure, they're not zapping your brain quite yet, but reading your heart rate might just be the start of what's to come.