The App That Literally Gets Inside Your Head
A new smart phone app, designed by the company Personal Neuro Devices, could change the way you de-stress altogether. Called ‘Transcend’, the app aims to ease stress and help people become relaxed by monitoring and displaying a user’s brain waves. It is available for use in conjunction with a separately sold headset (MindWave) that acts as a brain user interface and records brain electrical activity.
According to Reuters, ‘the user picks the duration of time for the meditation and can also opt to listen to a guided audio meditation. A candle graphic in the app grows brighter as the quality of the practice increases, which is determined by brainwaves that indicate relaxation and concentration. A graph in the app also shows the quality of meditation in real time throughout the session.’
"You get to literally look at what's happening in the mind while you're doing the practice," said Chad Veinotte, the director of Personal Neuro devices, and added that the app and headsets will become popular like sensor-based fitness apps that track distance and speed have.
MindWave headsets are manufactured by NeuroSky and other uses for the headsets include concentration and focus games. Headset manufacturers are working on making the headsets more attractive to consumers by integrating the brain wave sensing components into music playing head sets and by improving the overall design and style.
‘Transcend’ is currently available for Android phones and an iPhone version will
be released soon.
