Neurosky Biosensors at GDC2012
March 2012 – San Francisco, CA – At the Game Developers Conference Neurosky presented their new development program for helping companies monetize their technology through new applications. Their EEG has been incorporated into several products from games to rehabilitation products to preventive care applications. These resulted in a monetization model that included the program being bundled with the brain wave scanning headset as an OEM model, bundling of the headset as a retail multi-pack with the software and referral commission for the website redirects for product purchase.
The EEG scanner technology incorporates a custom chip that does the data processing and provides the structured response of the hardware through a software API. This chip is now being complemented with a second device that performs ECG and heart beat monitoring with a dry, non-invasive and not glue connected sensor. The sensor solution features medical grade results, but is not an FDA device. Targeted to the cardio and exercise marketplace initially, the device is being created at a consumer product component price point.
To help develop applications and promote the device, Neurosky is providing financial grants to companies, in the form of a cardio app developer contest. The contest is designed to encourage developers to create new uses, ideas and tools around the product. Similar to the program for the brain interface device, they are hoping to create a large number of uses and end products (such as add-ons or inclusion in mobile devices) that have not been imagined as yet.
The use of the biodata in conjunction with the custom semiconductor hardware is driving new development of algorithms to interpret different states of the user. The goal is to use these components to create product which can identify relaxed, stressed, fatigue states as well as physiological (real) age, The current brain scan technology is available as commercial products in the $99-$129USD range, and the heart rate / cardio product is targeted for lower cost.
