The unit price of 3,500 yuan is not expensive for Chinese parents, but there are more concerns outside the price.
Editor’s note: This article is from interface news, author Lin Beichen.
A brain-moving product that raises the attention of students enters the public eye.
According to the “Wall Street Journal” report, the brain-computer interface headband device named FOCUSONE appeared in the elementary school classroom in Jinhua, Zhejiang. Students wear this “headband” to test the concentration of the class, and the headband will give the child a Pay attention to the scores and see if the primary school students are attentive and have their attention. The scores are sent to the teacher’s mobile phone through the system, and then the teacher sends the “score” to the parents.
This kind of scene is quite a science fiction. Imagine in the morning class, a group of primary school students with a flashing headband, the drowsy head had to train the concentration through brainwaves, the system also gave each student the attention score, teachers, parents through the invisible Brainwaves observe the child’s learning state today, which is like a scene appearing in science fiction films.
In fact, Zhejiang Jinhua Xiaoshun Primary School is not the first school in China to use this equipment. According to the interface news reporter, there are already 40 sets of FOCUSONE equipment outside the Shanghai Shiwai Primary School for students to use. In July of this year, the brain-computer interface company named BrainCo held a product class show in Shenzhen Futian Center Book City. In addition, Capital Normal University and Yale University Summer Class also cooperated with BrainCo to conduct trial classes.
FocusONE at Yale Summer School
This product has a unit price of 3,500 yuan after entering China, and adopts a proxy mode. At present, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen have developed city agents.
The core principle of the education headband is to collect biological signals by collecting biological signs in the brain.Connect and interpret with human consciousness to read the brain through external devices for focus evaluation.
BrainCo’s founder, Han Wei, worked at the Medical Device Research Center in Seattle, USA, and received a Ph.D. from the Harvard Brain Science Center. His founding team is also a Chinese at Harvard. In addition to the education of the first ring, BrainCo also developed brain-computer technology to assist prosthetic products, brainwave smart fake hand and other products, the underlying technology is “non-invasive brain-computer interface technology.”
The brain-computer interface is a multi-disciplinary cross-technology involving neuroscience, signal detection, signal processing, pattern recognition, etc. It is divided into non-invasive and invasive methods in application, most of which are medical applications. It can treat diseases such as sputum. In the commercial sector, the most famous invasive brain-computer interface application is the recently released “brain intubation” technology by Murak’s brain-computer interface research company Neualink.
In October 2018, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference held in Shanghai, BrainCo brought a use The head ring controls the racing model to run on the runway, and the smart devices that display brainwaves and brain-computer interfaces have officially entered commercial applications. After the on-site experience of the interface journalists, the more concentrated the attention is, the stronger the thought of the car running fast, the car in front will really speed up, and the color of the indicator light on the headband will gradually change color.
According to the official introduction, the goal of education invented by BrainCo is targeted at the primary and secondary school groups. According to the product test report jointly released by BrainCo in Harvard in the United States, students can use the product to achieve two cycles (average one cycle of 21 days), and the results can be improved from B to B+, B+ to A-, and can be maintained for a long time. .
However, the question is, will Chinese parents pay for it? Even with the endorsement of the Harvard report, is the brain-computer interface product really helpful for the classroom in the Chinese market with different educational backgrounds?
A mother from Ningbo, Zhejiang, told the interface journalist that in coastal cities, preschool focus classes for young children are very common. Before the daughter was three years old, the mother sent her child to a training institution to train her concentration on reading and jigsaw puzzles. A 45-minute pre-school focus class, the fee in Ningbo is about 150 yuan. It is the main purpose of these classes to cultivate children’s interests and observe the persistence time of the game in front of them.
Because of this, her acceptance of “brain-computer interface training” is quite high. In the eyes of this young mother, if the price of 3,500 yuan can achieve long-term effects, it is a price that is completely willing to pay. She said that concentration training is started from the doll, and she is willing to accept such an attempt to ensure safety.
Compared to the effectParents are more worried about product safety. A Beijing-based dad told Internet news reporters that just as the popularity of TV computers has increased, myopia has become more and more. If this product really goes into widespread practice, what he is most worried about is whether the child is dependent on it. Whether it is addictive to the brain head ring like a game addiction.
Talking about price and effect, the moms and dads who interviewed the interface news reporters all said that 3,500 yuan is not expensive. A father who had experienced FOCUSONE in reality even said with certainty, “If my son’s attention is not concentrated and his grades are poor, I agree 100%.”
However, this product is still not their first choice. Parents are now more willing to spend money on traditional courses than new technologies that are not officially confirmed.
“If it is effective and harmless, I feel that the country will put it into the classroom without my consent.” Chinese parents are always willing to invest in education, but in the game of new technology and education demand market, brain machine The science and promotion of the head ring still has a long way to go.