Geoff Mackellar, chief technology officer at Emotiv, sat down with ThinkFWD to discuss how the company evolved to become a market leader in the field of mind-machine wearables, and what the future holds for this innovative technology.

How did Emotiv start?

We started by looking into intuitive interfaces – computers that understand how you’re thinking and feeling, and adjust their behaviour accordingly. The company was actually re-founded after shutting down during the global financial crisis, but the vision remains the same. Basically, we look into ways to interact with computers more naturally using brain signals.

In a nutshell, how does your technology work?

We’ve adapted a medical technology known as electroencephalography (EEG), where small electrical sensors on the head are used to detect neurons firing inside the brain, which our algorithms then interpret as specific emotions and thought patterns. There are signatures for things such as excitement, frustration, calm; even subconscious states. The technology can also be used to convert conscious thoughts into mental commands.

Where is it proving most useful?

Our new headset is designed to be a long-term wearable that monitors you during the day. Basically it’s a brain activity tracker that gives you meaningful feedback and helps you concentrate and relax better, become more focused, pay more attention while driving, and so forth. It’s also useful for things such as user interface testing and focus groups, where it’s often hard to get unbiased feedback from participants.

It also gives us the opportunity to collect medical grade EEG data from a large population of healthy people, which is donated anonymously via an opt-in app. This type of database doesn’t currently exist, so it will give medical researchers a much more comprehensive healthy baseline that they can use while researching brain illnesses, such as epilepsy and depression.

On the control side, examples include computer gaming, and controlling lights and other devices. Support and rehabilitation for the disabled is a big application. Patients can use it to learn to play games, communicate and engage in activities, which can greatly improve their general outlook. A good example is a quadriplegic car accident victim who, after a month of training her brain to use our technology, became much more positive and motivated. The rehabilitation people said her improvement was miraculous.

How does your latest EEG headset improve on previous models?

We did a Kickstarter campaign for $100,000, but ended up raising about $1.67 million, which was the most money raised in our category at the time.

It’s designed more for the wearables market, so it’s a lot easier to fit. The electrical contacts use a locally developed polymer, which is self-lubricating; the previous model had to be lubricated with contact lens fluid prior to use. It uses fewer sensors, so manual adjustment is easier. It can also talk directly to mobile phones via Bluetooth.

Where do you see this technology taking us in the next decade and beyond?

I think we’re looking at a future similar to that of most other wearable technologies, where it will be there to enhance your life and improve your capabilities by tracking what you do and helping you to measure your performance. Another possible application is enhanced online searches through sites, such as Google that also take your emotional state into account.

There is the option of moving into medical monitoring further down the road once we’ve built a medical database. There’s a strong case for using it with ADHD sufferers, as it’s quite easy to build learning applications that leverage the device’s feedback regarding how well you’re focusing and paying attention. There’s a lot of research in that area, and a couple of companies are developing our technology into that kind of application. And with the population rapidly ageing, a lot of people are concerned about their mental performance. We see that as a reasonably short-term opportunity over the next 10 to 15 years, and we think the technology is going to make a big impact.