The New Wave of Wearable Brain Tech That Reads Your Mind

A decade ago, Fitbit represented the peak of consumer-grade wearable technology. That crown was quickly snatched by the Apple Watch, which soon rose to become the top-selling smartwatch on the planet. Next came the slimmer, far more discreet Oura Ring, shifting wearable trends from bulky wrist devices to subtle, under-the-radar accessories.

Today, an entirely new category of wearables is emerging — one designed to sit directly on your head. Unlike existing devices that log step counts, monitor heart rate, or track skin temperature, these new gadgets are built to read your brain’s activity. They use electroencephalography (more commonly called EEG) to pick up the electrical impulses the brain generates, then leverage artificial intelligence to interpret those signals.

Take Elemind as a case in point. Instead of only monitoring your sleep cycles, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup’s product is engineered to actively improve sleep quality. Priced at $350, Elemind’s futuristic headband could easily pass for a prop from Star Trek, and its entire purpose is to boost deep, restorative rest. It reads individual brain signals to detect whether you’re awake or asleep, then delivers a specific form of acoustic stimulation called pink noise to shift your brain from alert, wakeful activity patterns to delta waves, the brain activity linked to deep sleep. In a small preliminary trial with 21 participants, the device helped over three-quarters of testers fall asleep much faster than they normally would.

For people who prioritize working smarter over working harder, Boston-based startup Neurable sells a $500 pair of EEG-equipped headphones designed to boost productivity. Built-in EEG sensors track the brain activity tied to concentration — specifically beta brain waves — to give users real-time feedback on how focused they are. When I tested the headphones last year, they confirmed what I’d already suspected: my most focused, productive work hours fall in the early morning. The device also prompts users to take occasional breaks if it detects you’ve been deeply concentrated for too long, a feature I especially value as someone who spends most of their day working behind a computer screen.

Apple is also dipping its toes into wearable brain technology. The company filed a 2023 patent for EEG-powered AirPods, though those have yet to hit store shelves. That said, earlier this year Apple launched a new accessibility feature that lets its Vision Pro mixed reality headset be controlled directly by brain waves, rather than physical gestures. This update means the AR headset can now work seamlessly with brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) — systems that read brain signals to let users control devices with nothing but their thoughts.

One neurotech firm, Cognixion, is already leveraging this new Apple feature. The Santa Barbara, California-based startup built a custom augmented reality app that runs on Vision Pro, paired with a proprietary headband that reads brain signals. Right now, Cognixion’s main focus is using this technology to help restore communication for people living with speech impairments caused by paralysis. But it’s not hard to imagine how a BCI-equipped Vision Pro could be adopted by mainstream consumers for everything from immersive gaming to hands-free texting with just your mind.

Earlier this year, I sat down with Andreas Melhede of Elata Biosciences, who is building what he calls the “open internet of brains” — an open-source network that lets any developer build a neuro app compatible with standard EEG devices. The non-profit has built its own EEG device and a simple Pong game, which it demoed this past fall at a cryptocurrency conference in Singapore. Around 30 attendees gathered on a restaurant patio to compete in a Pong tournament, but instead of using handheld controllers, each competitor wore a headset that tracked their brain signals. Their goal? Move the on-screen paddle and hit the ball using nothing but their thoughts.

Pong has long been used as a proof of concept for BCI experiments, even by Neuralink. Melhede explained that the tournament was a lighthearted, approachable way to introduce everyday people to neurotech. Developers have already built several other gaming apps for the Elata network, and Melhede hopes to attract research and mental wellness apps to the platform too. “What users get out of it and what developers build is entirely up to them,” he says. His inspiration for founding Elata came after watching a loved one struggle with depression and anxiety; he believes wearable neurotech could be a life-changing tool for people dealing with those conditions.

Other wearable neurotech developers are pursuing full regulatory approval as medical devices, following the same path Apple took to get many of its Apple Watch health features cleared by regulators. Sweden’s Flow Neuroscience has developed a headset that delivers low-intensity electrical current via a method called transcranial direct current stimulation, to treat depression. A matching companion app offers behavioral therapy resources, clinical guidance, and ongoing symptom monitoring. This past December, the device won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the first at-home, non-pharmaceutical treatment for major depressive disorder available in the U.S. It already holds approval in the U.K., Europe, Australia, and multiple other markets. In a clinical trial with 174 participants, 45% of people who used Flow’s device saw their depression symptoms go into remission after 10 weeks, compared to just 22% of participants in the control group who used a placebo sham device. Flow expects the headset to launch in the U.S. in spring 2026, and it’s already available for use through the U.K.’s National Health Service.

While implanted BCIs are already advanced enough to decode inner speech and even predict some unconscious thoughts, no consumer wearable today is sophisticated enough to read a person’s private thoughts — at least not yet. These consumer devices only use AI to identify specific brain wave patterns tied to certain general states of mind. Even so, brain wave data is extremely personal, and it can reveal a huge amount of sensitive information about someone’s mental and emotional state. This has sparked urgent questions about how the data collected from these devices will be stored and kept secure. The brain is the final frontier of personal privacy. Digital ads are already frighteningly targeted today, but just imagine if device makers sold consumers’ neuro data to third-party advertisers. Or if your employer could see exactly how many minutes of your workday you weren’t fully focused on your tasks.

Nita Farahany, a professor of law and philosophy at Duke University and author of Battle for Your Brain, which explores the emerging era of brain tracking and neurotech, predicts that wearable neurotech will eventually become nearly universal. “They will become so commonplace that they won’t even be recognizable as ‘wearables’ like headphones or earbuds — they’ll be tiny tattoos behind your ear, seamlessly integrated with all your other devices,” she says. “That’s where this is inevitably going: seamless, direct brain-to-device integration.”