今年早些时候我与 Neurable 交流时，该公司表示计划将其脑部扫描技术授权给其他厂商，以推动大量即将上市的设备。但最终，他们决定先推出自家的硬件产品。
When I spoke to Neurable earlier this year, the company said it planned to license its brain-scanning technology to power a flood of gadgets that were ready to enter the market. But it decided to launch its own hardware first.
“我们希望将产品研发收归内部，”Neurable 联合创始人兼首席执行官 Ramses Alcaide 对《连线》杂志表示，“我们有很多想要改进产品的地方，而且我们希望以更快的速度推进。这也让我们有更多能力去展示这项技术所能实现的可能性。”这家位于波士顿的公司此前一直依赖其他品牌在其产品中展示其脑部扫描技术，这些产品都承诺能帮助用户提高专注力，并通过配套应用程序提供大脑活动数据。
“We wanted to take the product in-house,” Ramses Alcaide, Neurable’s cofounder and CEO, tells WIRED. “There were a lot of areas where we wanted to improve the product, and we wanted to move at a much faster rate. It also puts a little more capability for us to be able to show off what’s possible with the technology.”The Boston company has until now relied on other brands to showcase its brain-scanning technology in their products, all of which promise to help people improve focus and provide data about your brain activity in a companion app.
几年前，该公司开始将这项技术集成到部分 Master & Dynamic 耳机中。今年年初，Neurable 还展示了一款与惠普旗下 HyperX 合作的游戏耳机，内置了两个脑电图（EEG）传感器。
It began a few years ago by building its tech into some Master & Dynamic headphones. At the start of this year, Neurable showed off a gaming headset with HP's HyperX featuring two electroencephalography (EEG) sensors built in.
与最初的 M&D MW75 Neuro 耳机一样，Neurable One 在尼龙耳垫中配备了 12 个用于监测脑电波的 EEG 传感器。这款耳机售价 499 美元，将于 10 月在 Neurable 官网发售。
Like the original M&D MW75 Neuro headphones, the Neurable One features 12 EEG sensors in the nylon earpads that are used to monitor brain waves. The headphones cost $499 and will be available in October from Neurable’s website.
随新耳机一同推出的还有一款新应用程序（旧版应用程序目前仍将保留，以支持旧款硬件）。Alcaide 表示，该应用可追踪八项大脑指标：大脑年龄：追踪你大脑的感知年龄与实际年龄的对比。大脑电量：你剩余的精力储备。速度：你处理信息的速度。专注度：你注意力保持的程度。负荷：你在执行任务时所消耗的精力。压力：你在执行任务时的紧张程度。困倦度：你距离进入睡眠状态的程度。
Alongside the new headphones is a new app (the old app will continue to exist for now for older hardware), which Alcaide says tracks eight brain metrics: Brain Age: Tracks your brain’s perceived age against your real age. Brain Battery: What you have left in reserve. Speed: How quickly you process information. Focus: How well your attention is holding. Load: How much effort you spend doing the task. Stress: How much tension you have doing the task. Sleepiness: How far you are drifting toward sleep.
Alpha 峰值频率：你最强的静息节律，Neurable 称其类似于大脑的心率变异性。
Alpha Peak Frequency: Your strongest resting rhythm, which Neurable claims is like the brain's heart rate variability.
Neurable One 在硬件和软件方面最大的改进在于：用户不再需要通过应用程序来启动脑电活动监测功能。只需戴上耳机，Neurable One 就会自动开始监测你的脑电活动——Alcaide 将这一过程比作佩戴 Fitbit（一款智能手环）。
The biggest hardware and software change with the Neurable One is that you no longer have to start a session in the app to capture brain activity. Instead, the Neurable One passively monitors your brain as soon as you put the headphones on—Alcaide likens it to wearing a Fitbit. At that point, the sensors begin monitoring your brain activity to measure your focus.
当设备检测到你的注意力开始分散时，它会通过声音提示让你重新集中注意力；如果认为你可能处于疲劳状态，它会建议你休息，以便之后能以最佳状态继续工作。
When it detects that you’re getting distracted, the headphones play a ping to get you back on track. If it thinks you're burning out instead, it’ll recommend a break so you can come back later fully recharged.
该耳机与应用程序的组合功能同样适用于帮助用户入睡或进行冥想。例如，在冥想过程中，你可以跟随引导语音进行练习；当设备检测到你的注意力变得专注时，引导语音会停止播放，让你保持这种专注状态；如果发现你的注意力又开始分散，它会重新开始引导你。对于助眠功能而言，该设备会逐渐降低助眠音频的音量（适用于小憩而非正式睡眠）。你也可以选择关闭脑电传感器，仅将耳机作为普通耳机使用。
The headphone-app combo works similarly to help you fall asleep and to meditate. For example, with meditation, you can follow a guided session, and when the headphones detect you’re in the flow, the guide will stop talking so you stay in that zone. If it detects you’re drifting away, it’ll start guiding you back again. For sleep—designed for naps rather than proper bedtime—it can, over time, lower the headset volume of guided naps or soundscapes as it detects you falling asleep. (You can also turn off the EEG sensors and just use them as regular headphones if you want.)
Alcaide 表示，当应用程序提示他的脑电活动“电量不足”时，他会选择去桑拿房休息或提前睡觉以恢复精力。该应用程序还能告诉他大脑最活跃的时间段，从而帮助他调整工作安排，将最重要的任务安排在这些时间段内完成。此外，还有一个名为“Cognitive Snapshot”的功能：用户触发该功能后，应用程序会显示当前的大脑状态，并提供相应的改善建议（比如通过引导性冥想或小游戏来锻炼大脑的特定区域）。应用程序还会定期（每周或每月）生成报告，帮助用户长期跟踪自己的脑电活动变化。
Alcaide says when the app tells him his brain battery is low for the day, he’ll go to the sauna and go to bed early to help him recover. It can tell him when his peak brain speed hours are, allowing him to rejigger his schedule so he does his hardest work during those times. There’s also a check-in system called Cognitive Snapshot; when you trigger it, the app shows your current brain state and offers recommendations to improve it. That could be a guided meditation or small games to exercise those parts of your brain. The app also provides weekly or monthly reports to track your brain activity over time.
Neurable目前没有新的研究或数据可以证明其最新款耳机产品的有效性；相关研究仍在进行中，但需要一定的时间才能完成。不过，Neurable仍引用了之前与梅奥诊所（Mayo Clinic）合作的研究结果：使用Neurable耳机的人在注意力集中方面比使用番茄工作法（Pomodoro Technique）或其他专注辅助工具的人表现更好（注意力集中程度提高了30%）；同时，这些用户的日终疲劳感降低了约10%，幸福感也有所提升。
Neurable doesn’t have any new research or data to share that can speak to the effectiveness of its latest headphones. That research is in the works, but it will take time. So Neurable still points to previous research with the Mayo Clinic, which showed a 30 percent increase in focus in individuals using Neurable's headset versus people using Pomodoro techniques or other types of focus-sustaining systems. The study also saw a drop of about 10 percent in end-of-day burnout and an increase in end-of-day happiness.
这款产品并未被归类为医疗设备，Neurable明确表示其设计目的并非用于诊断、治疗或监测任何健康问题。该公司还承诺不会出售收集到的用户脑部数据（这些数据未来可能具有很高的价值），并且不会将这些数据用于广告宣传。Alcaide表示，企业客户批量购买这些耳机是为了帮助员工提高工作效率，而非为了监控员工的工作状态。
The product isn’t categorized as a medical device, and Neurable says it isn’t designed to diagnose, treat, or monitor any conditions. The company also promises not to sell any of the data it collects about your brain—which could become very valuable in the future—and says it doesn't use that data for advertising. Alcaide says enterprise customers buy its headsets in bulk to help employees focus, but they’re not buying the headsets to monitor the workforce.
“我们相信这样做对双方都是有益的：员工的效率会提高，幸福感也会增强，从而实现双赢，”他说。“这就像有些公司为员工购买健身会员一样。”他还强调，每位用户的个人数据都会被严格保密。
“It's because we know we're going to get higher productivity per employee; they're going to be happier, they're going to feel less burned out, it's a win-win for everybody,” he says. “It's like how sometimes companies get gym memberships for their employees.”He stresses that each user’s data stays with them.
Alcaide透露，该公司与一家音频品牌合作开发了产品的非脑部扫描相关部分（即产品的硬件部分），但并未透露该品牌的名称。这款耳机采用了与之前与M&D公司合作时相同的优质音频技术：配备40毫米铍合金驱动单元、六个麦克风、主动降噪功能、透明模式，以及22小时的续航时间（如果开启EEG传感器的话续航时间会缩短至12小时）。该耳机支持蓝牙5.2标准，并兼容AAC和aptX音频编码格式。Neurable的应用程序可在Android和iOS平台上使用。
Alcaide says the company partnered with an audio brand to help with the non-brain-scanning bits of the hardware, though he wouldn’t share the name. These cans have the “same premium sound” as the earlier M&D collaboration, with 40-mm beryllium drivers, six microphones, active noise cancellation, a transparency mode, and 22 hours of run time—12 if you have those EEG sensors running. It supports Bluetooth 5.2, and both AAC and aptX codecs. Neurable’s app is available on both Android and iOS.