BCI startup Neurable is considering licensing its ‘mind-reading’ technology for consumer wearables

Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, in which neural signals are sent from a person’s head to a computer, was once the stuff of science fiction, but now it’s a competitive cornerstone of the high-tech industry. Neurable, one of the companies vying to commercialize BCI, announced this week that it is considering licensing its “mind-reading” technology into consumer wearables.

Neurable specializes in “non-invasive” BCIs, meaning its products don’t require users to undergo brain surgery to reap its benefits, setting it apart from companies like Neuralink, the Elon Musk-founded startup known for inserting computer chips directly into people’s skulls.

Neurable’s technology works through a combination of EEG sensors and signal processing to scan a user’s brain activity, analyze it with AI, and provide information about a person’s cognitive performance.

In December, Neurable raised $35 million in Series A funding, which it plans to use to expand the commercialization of its technology. The company announced this week that it is considering licensing its technology to a variety of consumer companies as part of its expansion.

The idea is that mind-reading technology – which can provide detailed data about how the brain functions as humans engage in different activities – can be integrated into wearables across a variety of industries, including health and exercise products, productivity tools, and gaming. “Through Neurable’s licensing platform, OEMs can integrate AI-powered brain-sensing technology directly into existing hardware such as headphones, hats, glasses, and headbands, while maintaining full control over product design, user experience, and distribution,” the company said in a press release on Tuesday.

Neurable has already fostered partnerships with a number of companies to test its effectiveness. This includes HP Inc.’s gaming brand HyperX. The company has developed a headset designed to help gamers “level up their game play by optimizing focus and performance.” It has also partnered with a company called iMotions, a software platform specializing in human behavior research, to support its research initiatives.

Neurable CEO Ramses Alkaid declined to say in an interview what new partnerships the company is pursuing, but said the company is looking to expand its reach across a number of areas.

“Historically, we have been very specific about our partnerships,” Alkaid said, noting that Newable has tended to focus on specific companies to prove their value for unique commercial applications. Now that the startup knows it can meet expectations on many fronts, it is focused on scaling itself, he said.

“What we’re doing now is basically saying, ‘We’ve demonstrated that we’re getting tremendous traction,'” Alkaid said. “Let’s make this as ubiquitous as a wrist heart rate sensor. Right?”

Despite the “non-invasive” label, brain data is probably a little more intimate than information extracted from heart rate sensors. So what kind of privacy protections does a company like Neurable offer?

Alkaid said the company will ensure that user data is “secured and anonymized.” The company’s privacy policy sets out various guidelines for when and how your data may be accessed and used. “We’re making sure that we comply with HIPAA standards, just as we go above and beyond what many startups would be at our stage to make sure that data is protected, encrypted and anonymized,” Alkaid said.

We asked, is Neurable leveraging your neural data to train its AI software? “You can do this with the user’s consent, right?” Alkaid said. “But we do that in a very specific way,” Alkaid said, including asking users if their data can be used for specific experimental purposes. “We’re not collecting data, we’re just training with it,” he said. In other words, this type of data use is highly targeted.

Alkaid said his industry is at a “tipping point” where there is finally a “true business model for scalable neurotechnology.” The big question is what happens after this inflection point.