The International Consumer Electronics Show, held in Las Vegas this week, is a vast celebration of every imaginable gadget and gizmo, from self-cleaning smartphone screens to self-driving cars. And while the event is not always a reliable guide (think 3-D TVs), it does reveal the industry’s best guess of what consumers might want next.
This coming year, wearable technology is expected to be big: companies at CES displayed every imaginable wearable gadget, designed for everything from baby monitoring to calmer meditation.
Wearable makers are also working on ways to take more accurate, intimate measurements than you can get with just an accelerometer. Singapore-based Zensorium, for instance, will soon start selling Being, a wearable device that can be worn as a smart watch or clipped to your clothing. When it’s on the wrist, an optical sensor on its back can continuously measure your heart rate and blood pressure, and it will use those readings to measure your stress. The watch, which is expected to ship in three months, will cost $199.
Among the odder-looking wearables on display was the head-worn Melomind from Paris-based myBrain Technologies, a digital meditation aid that shares EEG measurements with your smartphone.
Melomind looks like a cross between a headband and a bike helmet, with several metal electrodes touching different parts of the wearer’s head. Cofounder Thibaud Dumas, who wore a Melomind while speaking, explained that the device measures a user’s brain waves and sends them to a smartphone app via Bluetooth; the app also plays music that Dumas said will adjust with your changing brain waves in an effort to help you relax. The device will cost $299, and the company hopes to release it in late 2015.