Corporate Introduction

We create technology that makes your life better and gives you ways of unlocking potential that you never knew existed.

 

We met with Ariel Garten at the Exponential Medicine summit in San Diego where she was a featured speaker on the Future of NeuroMedicine.  Ariel is the CEO and co-founder of InteraXon, which creates thought controlled computing products and applications. She has also researched at the Krembil Neuroscience Institute studying hippocampal neurogenesis and has been referred to as the “Brain Guru”. Here she discusses designing brain-sensing technology.

Video presentation by Ariel Garten at TED – Click above to view.

As head designer at a fashion label, she opened Toronto Fashion Week and displayed work at the Art Gallery of Ontario. She uses her design talents and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) knowledge to create concepts that benefit healthcare consumers.  Her team’s work is featured in hundreds of articles in over 20 countries. Most notably; the display of using thought applications to control the CN Tower and other landmark lighting at the Toronto Olympics.  But her vision, driven by her experience as a therapist goes much further.

InteraXon was founded in 2009 by Ariel, Chris Aimone, and Trevor Coleman. Their website announces “ We create technology that makes your life better and gives you ways of unlocking potential that you never knew existed. And we do it in ways that are engaging, fun and that you want to be a part of. Our goal is to develop the next generation of brain-sensing technologies. And then, the generations after that.”

Energetic CEO and vibrant speaker; Ariel says”Our mission is to help people understand and improve their minds”. Here is our interview with a designer, TEDx presenter and Exponential Medicine speaker, Ariel Garten:

 Startup Envisioning Concept

We took the technology of the lab and recognized this incredible opportunity to actually help people directly interface with their brain. 

Innov8Med: Tell us how InteraXon started and you began your company?

Ariel: My background is neuroscience, design and psychotherapy.  As a practicing therapist,  I would see person after person with anxiety and depression without the ability to manage their mental state.  I started working in the research lab of Dr. Steve Mann, a professor at the University of Toronto that I met through a mutual friend. Steve is the accredited inventor of the wearable computer  and one of the inventors of Glass before Google.

I was working research labs because of my  interest in brain waves as an intersection between neuroscience and the self.  Steve came out of the computing lab at MIT a zillion years ago – one of the forefathers of the wearable computer.  We started to collaborate based on our mutual interests.

We took the technology of the lab and recognized this incredible opportunity to actually help people directly interface with their own brain.  It hasn’t been popularly accessible until now.

Chris Aimone was Steve’s master student and joined the company along with Trevor Coleman. Together we formed InteraXon in 2009. Our mission is to help people understand and improve their minds.

We built a training app that teaches you to build states of focused attention. As it helps you build your focus; it helps you decrease your stress.

Designing Brain-Sensing Technology – From Build to Proof of Concept

It is a clinical grade EEG in a consumer form.

Innov8Med:  How did the application you built incorporate your lab work and design skills in designing brain-sensing technology?

The device that we built is the Muse, the brain sensing headband. The brain fitness tool that helps you morph your mind.  It is a clinical grade EEG in a consumer form.

It has two channels of data on the forehead, two channels of data behind the ears. It slips on the ears just like a pair of glasses. It connects wirelessly to your smart phone or tablet.  From there you can track your brain activity in real time.

Which is exciting if you are a neurologist, but not too useful if you are a consumer. The training app teaches you to build states of focused attention. As it helps you build your focus you decrease your stress.

Our users report sleeping much better – falling asleep faster and staying asleep. They report feeling generally happier about life, similar to a meditation tool. However, it notifies you when your mind has wandered, teaching you when to bring it back.

Every time you bring your mind back it is like doing a rapid de-gym. It teaches you to build focus. You are able to avoid external distractions – sounds, lights and things in your environment as well as internal distractions – native thoughts, feelings, and ruminations.

Innov8Med:  What about the clinical aspects of the Muse?

We currently have over 50 research labs using the Muse both as a clinical grade EEG and with our application Muse Calm.  Mayo is about to start a study about breast cancer and how the Muse reduces stress during treatments and helps decision making outcomes.

We have a study in Canada looking at cardiac care patients using Muse and reducing cardiac events. We have a project with Harvard looking at stress and depression.

Another one is looking at blood pressure, affect, sleep and more. Across the board people have taken this tool and apply it to autism, epilepsy, ADHD and anxiety depression.

Introducing New Technology and Products – From Funding to Launch

We let people  at the Olympics in Vancouver control the lights in the CN Tower, Canadian Parliament buildings and Niagara Falls with their mind …

Innov8Med Note: The Muse was introduced for funding through IndieGoGo on October 12, 2012 with a goal of $150,000 and closed on December 7, 2012 funded with $287,677 USD (192% of their goal).

Video introduction for their IndieGoGo funding – Click above to view.

Innov8Med:  How did you introduce the Muse?

Ariel:  PR has been our major vehicle.  The first big project we did was at the 2010 Olympics.  We let people in Vancouver control the lights in the CN Tower, Canadian Parliament buildings and Niagara Falls with their mind from across the country.  That was our entre onto the world scene.

Innov8Med: Has it been an uphill battle for you?

Ariel: No, this has been amazingly received. There are thousands of people using it to improve their lives.

It is currently in the market for $299. We have thousands of consumers buying and doctors recommending them to their patients.  Doctors use it for themselves. They have them in their waiting room for patients to manage the stress of waiting to see them. They are recommending them in place of ambienn, anxiety medication, or depressants for stress related illnesses.

We are not at the point where insurance companies have a code for it. In two or three years we will probably be there. But, if a child has ADD, the mom would much rather pay $300 and try this than pay the co-pay –whatever it is on $1,000 a year for Ritalin (Methylphenidate).

Developing for Today, Tomorrow and the Future

This is a mechanism for technology to understand more about the human…

Innov8Med:  Is anyone else making anything like the Muse?

Ariel: There is a small group of companies that have come to market with consumer grade EEG. We are the first company to make something that people can use in their everyday lives.

Innov8Med:  What other applications have does the product address?

Ariel:  We have MMA fighters that use it.

You are actually learning to focus. As you learn to focus, you diminish the negative thoughts that plague us. A Harvard study says that for 46% of the time our thoughts are elsewhere and not on what is actually going on in front of us.

This causes us unhappiness.  So MMA fighters learn to diminish those external distracting thoughts and stay laser focused on what is in front of them.

Because of the US Department of Defense attention to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD); we have a study going on that is being conducted by USF (the University of Southern Florida) through the Veterans Administration (VA).

Innov8Med: What is your vision for the future of designing brain-sensing technology?

In the future, the devices will get smaller.  The number of interventions it will be used for will be wide open.  Obviously, the Muse is brand new so we are really early on in the validation stage. Right now, all we can say is that it helps.  We really can’t make any claims.

My dream is that people understand and have dominion over their own mind.  Once you have dominion over your own mind, you are no longer tortured over things that we inflict on ourselves.  Those worries, those needless worries, negative voices, doubt and self criticism.  All of those things that people either don’t understand or are not required; that you can actually manage.

Until now, people have not had a tool to manage those things.

 

by Dan Charobee

Other One on One Interviews:

One on One with a Venture Capital Partner – Investing in Healthcare – Skip Fleshman