Exclusive: Neurable’s First Brain-Scanning Headphones Want to Fine-Tune Your Focus

Neurable unveiled its very own pair of brain-scanning headphones on Thursday, the Neurable One. The company claims that wearing them helps you concentrate on whatever you’re doing—working, studying, or playing a video game.

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.

“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. 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.

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.