[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrUIE0_OsmE?feature=oembed&w=100&h=100]
Muse, maker of meditation headbands, has unveiled the third iteration of its device (and first soft headband) at CES 2019.
The so-called “Softband” helps you meditate as you’re falling asleep by letting users instruct their Amazon Alexa device to play a guided meditation. The headband will then track your sleep behavior using the kind of brain-sensing tech Muse has pioneered through its previous products. When you wake up again in the morning, the associated Muse app will reveal how you have slept. Over time, it will reportedly help wearers to improve their sleep patterns. Cleverly, the headband will detect when you’ve fallen asleep and turn off the audio meditation — although it will continue to track your sleep patterns.
This news follows another recent announcement by Muse concerning new guided meditations released monthly at a price of $7.99 per month or $49.99 per year. Muse has also revealed that, later in 2019, it will be taking the lid off an “intelligent voice guidance” system that responds to the mental activity of headband wearers to offer a personalized meditation experience for each and every user.
According to TechCrunch, the Softband will offer a variety of other use cases, alongside sleep tracking, although Muse has yet to reveal exactly what these might be. The company’s still got a bit of time to reveal more details, however, since it won’t be launching the product into the market until the fourth quarter of 2019. Customers can reportedly expect to pay approximately the same price being charged for the Muse 2 headband, which would put it in the $250 price range.
The Softband isn’t the only cool bit of sleep-tracking tech on its way to (or already available for) customers. Other existing products in this category include bed-based sensors and even a device you put on your bed stand that then monitors your shut-eye using a combination of ultrasonic pulses and sonar. (For more information,you can check out our sleep-tracking roundup.)
While Muse’s Softband isn’t the only sleep tracker out there, we’d be lying if we said we’re not intrigued to give it a shot once it’s available later this year. Let’s hope it lives up to its promises.
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