The MW75 Neuro: Revolutionary Noise-Cancelling Headphones
Neurotechnology firm Neurable has partnered with Master & Dynamic to create the MW75 Neuro, a noise-cancelling headphone with a built-in brain-computer interface, which will allow it to measure the wearer’s brain activity and thus help monitor focus or mental fatigue through the day. The headphone is based on Master & Dynamic’s flagship MW75 featuring 40 mm beryllium drivers and adaptive ANC.
When you think of a brain-computer interface (BCI), an image of elaborate medical devices might come to mind. However, the MW75 Neuro is changing that perception. Partnering with renowned audio company Master & Dynamic, Neurable has designed a headphone with a built-in neural interface that can track the wearer’s brain waves, thus helping monitor and improve focus levels for maximum productivity.
The headphone is a version of M&D’s flagship wireless noise-cancelling model MW75, but with a visible difference in the ear pads. It integrates dry fabric EEG sensors, providing 12 EEG channels to capture signals from the brain, which are sent to the Neurable mobile app for processing.
Neurable’s mobile app interprets this neural data and displays the wearer’s focus levels throughout the day, generating graphs, scores and identifying ‘focus streaks’. It claims that this can help “uncover what affects your focus and what time of day you focus best so you can plan your most productive day.” Additionally, the app prompts users to take ‘brain breaks’ after prolonged focused activity, helping reduce burnout and boosting productivity.
As a headphone, the MW75 Neuro is clearly a premium one, crafted with anodized aluminium and tempered glass, and shipped with a felted hard case. M&D uses custom 40 mm beryllium coated drivers and eight microphones for noise reduction on calls and ANC. Speaking of which, there are three ANC modes – Adaptive, MAX and All Day – and two additional modes of ambient listening for improved outdoor awareness and voice assistant support. Battery life is 32 hours, but dips to 28 hours with ANC, and just 8 hours with both ANC and EEG enabled. Bluetooth 5.2 with aptX Adaptive and multipoint connectivity help with fast connectivity and seamless device switching.
Neurable’s broader vision includes future devices that can intuitively respond to the wearer’s mood or mental commands. This could lead to a truly hands-free headphone that could, for example, pause or skip tracks just by thinking. However, that level of functionality in brain-computer interfaces is clearly some way off.
For now, the MW75 Neuro seems to be just a very good wireless ANC headphone which also happens to detect brain signals for monitoring focus levels.
