Wearable AI-Powered Neurotech Startup Promises 'Electric Medicine' and Wellness Benefits (msn.com) 30
"Something revolutionary is on the horizon..." claims the company's web site. "Wearable neurotechnology that augments sleep, attention, and ultimately the human experience."
Or, as Fierce Biotech put it, "A startup emerged from stealth this week with grand plans to pioneer a new form of neurotech dubbed 'electric medicine.'" Elemind's approach centers on artificial intelligence-powered algorithms that are trained to continuously analyze neurological activity collected by a noninvasive wearable device, then to deliver through the wearable bursts of neurostimulation that are uniquely tailored to those real-time brain wave readings. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company claims that its approach — which is based on research from its founders, a group of high-profile scientists hailing from the likes of MIT, Stanford and Harvard — offers a more "natural" treatment option than pharmaceuticals for neurological conditions like insomnia, essential tremor and memory loss.
"Chemical drugs affect the entire body, often leading to unwanted side effects. Elemind offers a nonchemical, direct and on-demand solution that learns and dynamically adjusts to each person," Meredith Perry, a co-founder of Elemind and its CEO, said in the company's debut announcement. "We're the first and only company able to precisely guide and redirect brainwaves in real time."
"Elemind's first product is a general wellness device and will not be subject to FDA regulation," notes an announcement from the company. But they've thoroughly researched the product's potential: To date, Elemind's technology is supported by five clinical trials and several publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Clinical trials show Elemind's technology is effective at inducing sleep up to 74% faster, suppressing essential tremor with a significant decrease after only 30 seconds of stimulation, and boosting memory. Clinical trials also demonstrate Elemind is effective at increasing pain thresholds and enhancing sedation; this study is currently in peer review....
"You can think about it like noise cancellation for the mind," said Dr. David Wang, CTO and co-founder of Elemind. "Our technology uses phase-locking auditory stimuli to align precisely with the user's brainwaves and steer them to a different frequency associated with a different state."
The company plans to announce its first product within a few months, reports the Boston Globe, noting that the company's $12 million in seed funding came from "a consortium that includes Village Global, an early-stage venture fund backed by high-tech billionaires Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates., Reid Hoffman, and Ann Wojcicki..."
More info from VentureBeat.
Or, as Fierce Biotech put it, "A startup emerged from stealth this week with grand plans to pioneer a new form of neurotech dubbed 'electric medicine.'" Elemind's approach centers on artificial intelligence-powered algorithms that are trained to continuously analyze neurological activity collected by a noninvasive wearable device, then to deliver through the wearable bursts of neurostimulation that are uniquely tailored to those real-time brain wave readings. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company claims that its approach — which is based on research from its founders, a group of high-profile scientists hailing from the likes of MIT, Stanford and Harvard — offers a more "natural" treatment option than pharmaceuticals for neurological conditions like insomnia, essential tremor and memory loss.
"Chemical drugs affect the entire body, often leading to unwanted side effects. Elemind offers a nonchemical, direct and on-demand solution that learns and dynamically adjusts to each person," Meredith Perry, a co-founder of Elemind and its CEO, said in the company's debut announcement. "We're the first and only company able to precisely guide and redirect brainwaves in real time."
"Elemind's first product is a general wellness device and will not be subject to FDA regulation," notes an announcement from the company. But they've thoroughly researched the product's potential: To date, Elemind's technology is supported by five clinical trials and several publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Clinical trials show Elemind's technology is effective at inducing sleep up to 74% faster, suppressing essential tremor with a significant decrease after only 30 seconds of stimulation, and boosting memory. Clinical trials also demonstrate Elemind is effective at increasing pain thresholds and enhancing sedation; this study is currently in peer review....
"You can think about it like noise cancellation for the mind," said Dr. David Wang, CTO and co-founder of Elemind. "Our technology uses phase-locking auditory stimuli to align precisely with the user's brainwaves and steer them to a different frequency associated with a different state."
The company plans to announce its first product within a few months, reports the Boston Globe, noting that the company's $12 million in seed funding came from "a consortium that includes Village Global, an early-stage venture fund backed by high-tech billionaires Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates., Reid Hoffman, and Ann Wojcicki..."
More info from VentureBeat.
WooWoo (Score:4, Informative)
"Our technology uses phase-locking auditory stimuli to align precisely with the user's brainwaves and steer them to a different frequency associated with a different state."
what an absolute load of bollocks, if you are gonna defraud people at least be honest about it.
Re: (Score:2)
I dunno... I certainly get a charge out of these sorts of shocking announcements.
Re: (Score:2)
Well you have to stay away from fact-based arguments, they're too easy to discredit.
Re: (Score:2)
Powered by the cloud... (Score:3)
You can surely see where that is going!
Does it use quantums? I must have my quantums! (Score:4, Funny)
Why are we having an article about this abject quackery? Does it involve "AI"?
Re: (Score:3)
Not just any AI. Quantum blockchain AI. Ancient traditional medicine, all-natural, quantum blockchain AI. With a homeopathic infusion of serpens oleum. NOW how much would you pay?
Re: (Score:2)
Not just any AI. Quantum blockchain AI. Ancient traditional medicine, all-natural, quantum blockchain AI. With a homeopathic infusion of serpens oleum. NOW how much would you pay?
You know that old saying about 'an arm and a leg'? Shit's gonna be legal soon.
(No, no..they meant 'augment' what's left of your well-being.)
Re: (Score:2)
Why are we having an article about this abject quackery? Does it involve "AI"?
Quackery! Now there's a catchy name gone just long enough to work again.
Now On Demand -- Electroshock! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Now without dangerous chemicals. Not a medical device.
And thus the reason for them explicitly saying it's not subject to FDA regulation.
Not convinced by the name dropping (Score:4, Informative)
So it plays tones to get you to calm the fuck down.
It sure sounds a lot like this, going back to the 1970's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
It also reminds me of a different technology that had a similar goal - reprogramming the brain. This was the anti-bedwetting device that delivered an electric shock to the offending child/ person It's also from a less enlightened, but often effective, age.
As for listing all those backers, I don't know all those people. It would really help if they just listed their net worth. Wouldn't that be just as convincing?
No thanks, I already have my magnetic bracelet (Score:3)
On rough days I can just drink some extra alkaline water and pop a gluten-free Goop vagina sticker enema.
They completely lost me at... (Score:2)
Transcranial electric & magnetic stimulation are in their infancy & their risks are not yet known. Steer well clear of this.
Re: (Score:2)
no "Transcranial electric & magnetic stimulation" required they accomplish all they need via an anal probe.
Scam Alert (Score:2)
This is a scam and vaporware. No one should put money into this. For reasons that should be very obvious to anyone who passed High School level science, the proposed mechanism can't work. This is a premise of a bad sci-fi movie, not real technology.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah... monitoring brain activity is not something easily done at decent spatial and temporal resolutions. Knowing what that brain activity means even if you can monitor it adequately is yet another layer of difficulty. There's a reason you don't walk into your doctor's office, put on a cap and have their computer say, "Hell yeah, they're depressed, give 'em some Prozac".
Then they want to add the layer of some feedback? You can indeed send a magnetic pulse into a human brain to affect it. Doctors can g
Wearable AI Neurotech magic-netic startup (Score:3)
Seriously; this "Elemind" is just slick silicon valley advertising for snake oil. People have been doing this crap for decades. Being able to read electrical signals of the brain or nervous system, particularly in a non-invasive way, is pseudoscience at best, it's never been proven. I predict that this will be relegated to New Age shops and be sold next to the brain-calming crystals and the astrology books. But hey, someone's dumb enough to let Neuralink put a chip in their head when it's killed monkeys and rats like crazy, so as the gourd seller said in Life of Brian, there's one born every minute.
So Theranos is (Score:1)
...back in business
I know peddling snake-oil is a time honored traditional and all but... come on...
Chemical drugs (Score:1)
-
"Don't just say drugs. Put the word chemical in there."
"All drugs are chemicals. Everything is"
"What? What's wrong with you? Chemicals are bad. Put that in there."
Re: Chemical drugs (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Chemical drugs (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Just combine it with Amazon's wage cage (Score:2)
https://www.seattletimes.com/b... [seattletimes.com]
Then the ultra wealthy will lbe able to have literal slave machines. Not even the paralyzed will be excluded.
Just combine it with the work-while you sleep patent for 24 hour coverage.
https://patents.google.com/pat... [google.com]
But best of all, they'll put us in the machines not because computers can't do that same job, but because otherwise the thralls would have time to organize and change anything.
Re: (Score:2)
An electric tinfoil hat (Score:3)
Exactly what you need in high-school.
medical quackery at it's finest. (Score:2)
Reminds me of those old hand-held electo-therapy devices from the turn of last century (basically a chemical battery hooked to two metal rods you held in your hands). Cured everything from lumbago to an imbalance of humors.
A form of neurofeedback. might work. (Score:2)