It doesn’t read thoughts yet, but I wonder if it’s just a matter of time.
The Focus1, or Fu Si, headband, from US-based startup BrainCo, claims it can measure how closely students are paying attention through electrodes that detect electrical activity in kids’ brains and send the data to teachers’ computers or to a mobile app. A light on the headband that gleams red, yellow or blue, also purports to signal how engaged a child is with the task at hand—with red being the highest level of attention. The product already provoked unease in April, when photos and footage of primary school students in one Chinese province wearing the product started to circulate widely online.