Sử dụng trí tuệ nhân tạo và dữ liệu não bộ để mang lại ‘vệ sinh tinh thần tốt’ cho mọi người

One of the headliner features of iOS 18 for AirPods Pro is an all-new gesture system touted by Apple as a more accessible way to interact with phone calls and the like when one’s hands are full. These so-called “Siri Interactions” enable someone to nod or shake their head to accept or decline calls, respectively. Additionally, Apple says the gestures work when responding to text messages, managing notifications, and more.

It’s an exciting development for accessibility. Although I’d questioned in my iPhone 16 Pro review whether I really needed AirPods Pro in my tech arsenal any longer because the standard AirPods 4 with ANC perform with aplomb with a more compact charging case to boot, the AirPods Pro have life in them yet—and that isn’t taking into account the forthcoming hearing aid functionality. For now, however, it’s worth marveling at how, like Apple Watch before it, Apple’s litany of earbuds are becoming so stuffed with sensors they’re evermore transcending the breach from passive listening devices towards becoming actual miniature computers.

It’s no wonder Apple—and regulatory bodies like the FDA—have embraced AirPods being able to serve as over-the-counter hearing aids.

At least on one level, Neurable has one-upped Apple’s sensor game.

Back in August, I met with Neurable co-founder and CEO Dr. Ramses Alcaide in a conference room at a hotel in downtown San Francisco for a briefing during which he showed off his company’s MW75 Neuro headphones. Dr. Alcaide, a neuroscientist by training, explained to me in a interview that day that the $699 headphones are unique in that they work via so-called “brain-computer interfaces,” artificial intelligence, and a companion smartphone app, whereby users are able to literally use brainpower to remain focused on productivity and reduce burnout. On its website, Neurable boasts about “merging AI with brain data” while noting its focus on everyday devices (like headphones) enables the company to move slowly but surely towards a future world wherein “technology anticipates and responds to human intention.” The aforementioned headphones, built in collaboration with audiophile brand Master & Dynamic are merely the first step on what Dr. Alcaide promised me will be a years-long journey of discovery and improvement.

Dr. Alcaide retold Neurable’s origin story and how the company came into existence back in 2011 as part of his Ph.D work. At the time, the company was working with children who had cerebral palsy and looking for ways to help them with completing cognitive assessment exams. 13 years ago, Dr. Alcaide told me, it took a half-hour to set up these brain interface systems, adding it took 5 minutes to get one response from a short multiple choice question. In essence, Neurable has spent the intervening years making the technology that collects brain data faster and more efficient. It’s gotten to where the so-called BCI technology can fit inside a smallish form factor such as the Mater & Dynamic headphones. Dr. Alcaide has ADHD, saying the headphones have enabled him to maintain focus and productive. “I now know how it feels to be focused—it’s much easier and easier to go into focus itself,” he said.

The Neurable headphones have an accelerometer inside which track the wearer’s head movement. Part of the company’s goals was to reduce, if not entirely eliminate, distractions. Dr. Alcaide said “one of the most distracting things” to occur is getting text messages when trying to get work done. The team has developed a system whereby users are able to respond to incoming texts much in the same conceptual manner as the new Siri Interactions on AirPods. To wit, it’s possible to respond to messages without using your phone because, with the headphones on one’s head, s user can tilt their head left or right accordingly. This methodology, Dr. Alcaide said, lets people interact with messages without necessarily breaking concentration on the task at hand. As Dr. Alcaide said, the headphones stay on and you don’t reach into your pocket to pull out your phone; all that’s asked of you is to think about what you want to do and move your head left or right to signal intent.

“Essentially, it enables you to stay working,” Dr. Alcaide said of Neurable’s gestural software system. “You’re working on your computer (and) you get a text message from somebody that you’re allowing to come in. Instead of pulling out your phone (and) getting distracted with social media, you can just tilt your head real quick and then respond and then getting back to work as quickly as possible. We’re going to provide more and more capability via software updates, but the main goal for us right now is helping people maintain focus on their important work.”

Although Neurable’s raison d’être is increasing attentiveness and focus, it struck me during my meeting with Dr. Alcaide that his company’s technology has more applicability if one pulled on the proverbial string a little harder. The reality is this gesture-based interaction model, whether on Neurable’s headphones or Apple’s AirPods, can be a boon for reducing cognitive and physical motor friction associated with grabbing one’s phone when a text message comes chirping in. If I’m at my desk and using my iMac to write this story, for instance, my phone is nearby in absolute terms and I can get to it. The problem is, notifications induce anxiety, not to mention that I have to reposition my body in order to suitably reach my phone. Then I have to read through the Lock Screen, possibly respond, then, to Dr. Alcaide’s point, chances are good I’ll become further entangled by distractions like my email and/or social media. The bottom line is simple: More than maintaining focus, Neurable’s technology has immense potential to save disabled people like me from the little stressors that make responding to texts relatively inaccessible. In this way, Neurable and Apple’s ideas are perfectly aligned: both companies are using bodily movements to control computers when your hands couldn’t—or shouldn’t—intervene.

The means, and markets, are markedly different—but there is commonality here. The salient point is head movements is cool technology that surely enable convenience—but it’s accessibility too.

For Neurable’s North Star, Dr. Alcaide said the core product is “(helping) people be more productive.” The interface and gestures are expressly built to help mitigate distractions and encourage people to take breaks so as to prevent burnout. Put another way, Dr. Alcaide likened the technology to promoting what he described as “good mental hygiene.” Taken together, he said the tech helps people become healthier by assisting them in taking care of themselves throughout their workday.

The MW75 Neuro headphones went on sale late last month, and are available from Neurable directly as well as on Master & Dynamic’s website. In a press release published last month, Neurable touted the device as “the first smart brain computer interface-enabled headphones” intended for the consumer market. At a technical level, Neurable describes the headphones as using “Neurable’s advanced AI-powered electroencephalography (EEG) sensors into the headphone’s ear pads.” The EEG sensors, the company went on to say, “(captures) and analyze brain signals to generate detailed brainwave data that offers valuable insights into focus levels and more.” For his part, Dr. Alcaide said in part in a statement for the announcement that the human brain is “the core of our health and well-being” but that “we have only scratched the surface of what is possible by understanding and harnessing its power.”

When asked about feedback, Dr. Alcaide told me it has been “overwhelmingly positive.” Pre-orders went really well, with Dr. Alcaide says they chose to hone in on focus and burnout because the team noticed “a huge gap” with students and knowledge workers and an increase in depression and burnout due to fatigue from the kind of work they do. The more breaks people take, the better the brain feels; it gives the organ ample time to rest and recharge. More pointedly, the more work is completed means people can devote their energy towards arguably more important endeavors such as spending quality time with loved ones and indulging in leisure activities that aren’t stressful.

Dr. Alcaide went on to say despite there being other companies working on BCI, Neurable truly stands alone as the “lone frontiersman” when it comes to building a product performant enough that it requires no calibration—and packed in a relatable form factor like headphones.

“I don’t have to spend 5–10 minutes recording brain activity,” Dr. Alcaide said of his headphones’ value proposition. “It looks like a product, not a science project. There are no spiky electrodes. It’s all fabric. The thing we’re frontiersman at is we’ve solved the performance problem, so we can now solve the user experience problem. This is really where we’re forging ahead beyond where others are at.”

Looking towards the future, Dr. Alcaide was understandably cagey towards my probing questions about future hardware strategies. There are ideas, and plans, inside Neurable—neither of which Dr. Alcaide would detail beyond “we’re working on things.” Fair enough, so for now, Dr. Alcaide did tell me the company customers are “really excited” for what’s shipping today. Neurable is excited to have a hand in watching regular headphones evolve into so-called smart headphones. The partnership with Master & Dynamic plays into this as well, with Dr. Alcaide saying hardware is hard and the MW75 Neuro headphones uses run-of-the-mill, off-the-shelf parts. Master & Dynamic can worry about audio fidelity and things like supply chains and manufacturing; this frees Neurable to put all its energy into improving its core competency.

“The vision of the product is I want to enable people to better understand themselves (and) feel empowered when it comes to their mind, to better understand what are stressors,” Dr. Alcaide said to me about Neurable’s outlook. “What makes them feel excited, motivating, (and) how to give themselves good mental health hygiene, and then bring on an era where our hearable devices—headphones, earbuds, helmets—become a central source for that. The Silicon Valley vision is I believe this is the biggest revolution when it comes to better understanding oneself. The brain is the ultimate organ to track; right now we live in a world where our brain controls us. If we’re able to understand our brain, we can use that to control it to a certain degree.”