Protolabs names Cool Idea Award winner

Nurio’s EEG wearable has been announced as the winner of Protolabs’ Cool Idea Award for innovation in consumer technology.

Nūrio claims to be the smallest wearable consumer EEG device in the world. The device works by slipping over the ear like a headphone and provides consumers with app and cloud-based command capabilities to control any internet of things enabled device integrated on the nūrio cloud. The device works similarly to Alexa Skills; however, it uses a person’s brain waves and doesn’t require voice commands.

The device is able to stream any data collected from users’ mental activity via Bluetooth to any smartphone. This means that users will be able to visualise their brainpower and health insights on the nūrio app on their mobile phones.

“We aim to provide the world with access to their mental data to help better understand the previously mysterious mind,” said nūrio founder and CEO Ian Rowan. “We’re entering a new era of leveraging the mind to control the connected world, no matter of a person’s physical abilities."

Nūrio believes the wearables industry is opportunistic as the market appears to be continually growing. However, the company thinks that opportunity lies in looking at data from new angles to reveal insights into what’s going on in various parts of our bodies and optimising our health in completely new ways.

Additionally, the company realise the value of keeping costs down as much as possible in order to make this technology as accessible as possible to the general population. Winning Protolabs’ Cool Idea Award, means that the company has been able to significantly expedite production, and put the device on-track to come to market in mid-2020 for under $229 USD.

Protolabs also played a key role within the manufacture of the full plastic casing of the nūrio device with injection molding. In the future, once the design is complete, the two companies will collaborate to produce essential electrodes via CNC machining.

“Nūrio’s technology has the potential to completely redefine the quantified self and even tap into human capabilities that previously seemed impossible,” said Vicki Holt, president and CEO of Protolabs. “We’re proud to support such innovators who are giving people the ability to leverage their brain power in new and helpful ways.”