Neurable, a Boston-based neurotechnology startup, is moving from behind-the-scenes licensing to selling its own brain-scanning headphones. The Neurable One, announced Thursday, costs $499 and will ship in October. The company had previously planned to license its EEG technology to other gadget makers, but CEO Ramses Alcaide said building in-house lets the company improve the product faster and better demonstrate what the technology can do.
The headphones embed 12 EEG sensors in the earpads and passively monitor brain activity as soon as they are worn. The companion app tracks eight metrics, including focus, stress, and "brain battery," and can play a ping when it detects distraction or suggest a break when it senses burnout. Users can also disable the sensors and use the headphones as regular audio gear.
Neurable is positioning the product for both individual consumers and employers. Alcaide said enterprise customers buy the headsets in bulk to help employees focus, comparing it to corporate gym memberships, and stressed that user data stays with the user. The company says it does not sell brain data or use it for advertising, and the product is not classified as a medical device.
The company has not released new research on the headphones' effectiveness, instead pointing to an earlier Mayo Clinic study that found a 30% increase in focus and a 10% drop in end-of-day burnout among users. That study involved Neurable's earlier headset, not the new model.