Xiaomi Develops Brain Wave Headband for Controlling Smart Home Devices

pcmag.com:

We're all used to controlling smart home devices using our voice, but Xiaomi looks set to replace vocal commands with mind control.

As The Register reports(Opens in a new window), the Chinese tech company has just run a third hackathon for its engineers, and one of the devices created is called the MiGu Xiaomi Headband. A video of the prototype headband(Opens in a new window) along with a short description was posted on the Chinese messaging platform Weibo, which described it as a device for "smart home control and fatigue driving monitoring through brain waves."

The headband is paired with a smartphone which then monitors the wearer's brain waves. It should then be possible to concentrate on getting a specific smart home device to perform an action and the headband/phone combo interpreting the command before relaying it to the device. That's the impression the video gave, at least.

While being able to control devices simply by thinking about them sounds great, I doubt many people would be willing to wear a headband around their home in order to enable it. Vocal commands remain the more convenient, and I have no doubt, more reliable way of interacting with smart gadgets.

Xiaomi has a history of experimenting with new ideas and pushing the boundaries of existing ones. It's how the company came up with a way to add storage to a SIM card, got an under-screen camera to work, and managed to recharge a phone battery in eight minutes.

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