NEW YORK  (TIP): Pennneuroscientist Michael Plattand postdoc Arjun Ramakrishnanhave created a tool to use outside the lab, a wearable technology that monitors brain activity and sends back data without benching a player or asking a trucker to pull over.

The platform is akin to a Fitbit for the brain, with a set of silicon and silver nanowire sensors embedded into a head covering like a headband, helmet, or cap. The device, a portable electroencephalogram (EEG), is intentionally unobtrusive to allow for extended wear, and, on the backend, powerful algorithms decode the brain signals the sensors collect. Though it’s still in the early stages, the technology has potential applications from health care to sports performance and customer engagement.

In early 2017, they decided to build their own portable EEG, getting a boost from a National Science Foundation-funded seed grant allocated by Penn’s Singh Center for Nanotechnology.

Platt and Ramakrishnan began talking with PCI Ventures,a branch of the Penn Center for Innovationaimed at guiding University faculty through the process of starting a company. The licensing team at PCI helped them file a provisional patent for the product (originally called NanoNeuroScope), and Cogwear, LLC, was born in May 2018.

(Source – Upenn.edu)