Control your emotions freely, is it black technology or black mirror?
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Editor’s note: Wearable devices are becoming increasingly popular. Their functions include recording heart rate, measuring blood pressure, providing location information, and more. Now a Silicon Valley company is exploring wearable devices that change mood. This wearable device uses “low frequency electromagnetic” technology to change people’s mood. Although it sounds good, the practicality and safety of this technology still need to be considered. This article is translated from the original article entitled “Mood-Altering Wearables Are Silicon Valley ’s Newest Delusion” in Medium.
Tomorrow is the deadline, while you sit in the coffee shop and stare blankly at the blank laptop screen.
Your brain is moving fast, and every slight noise seems to make you more annoyed.
The women in the procession are holding babies who are crying.
A woman is calling loudly across from you.
You put your hand into the bag, take out your wearable wristband, set it to “silent”, and put it on your wrist.
A few minutes later, you suddenly feel calm.
You take a sip of coffee and start writing.
The increasing popularity of wearable technology
In 2016, there were 526 million wearable devices connected worldwide. Studies show that by 2022, this number will exceed 1.1 billion. As consumer health awareness continues to increase, technology for monitoring heart rate and blood pressure has become more popular, and even your mood monitoring may become more popular in the next decade.
Considering that more and more people are suffering from stress, depression, and anxiety, people have begun to imagine whether they can invent technology products that allow people to control their emotions?
But can it really change your mood by simply sliding and pressing a button like a wearable device?
Wearable technologyIs an emerging technology, but controlling emotions is not
In 1954, Peter Milner and James Olds implanted an electrode in the thrill center of the mouse brain and connected it with a button. Because the thrill was felt when the button was pressed, the mice went to great lengths to press the button so wildly that they gave up food, water, and sex until they eventually died. Since then, research into techniques for controlling emotions has slowly increased.
In the contemporary medical field, high-frequency electromagnetics are the basis of imaging equipment, such as x-ray, CT, and MRI scans. High-frequency electromagnetics can also be used in radiation therapy, including high-frequency electromagnetics for tumors.
For low-frequency electromagnetics, people have applied it to electromagnetic therapy, another medical practice that uses low-frequency electromagnetics to alleviate health problems. From reducing stress to curing cancer, people have made a lot of claims. Many people still doubt its benefits, and electromagnetic therapies have not been approved by professional bodies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA). But that hasn’t stopped some startups from trying this therapy.
Many companies are now selling wearables that “control emotions”
In 2016, ELF emmit launched an event on the crowdfunding website IndieGoGo to introduce a headband containing an electromagnetic coil to the market, using pulses to “change your mood”. The frequency of these pulses changes, depending on what emotional state you want to achieve. The event raised $ 207,186, which is 414% of its $ 50,000 target. Fast forward to today, this product received an average of two stars on Amazon and is now marked as “currently unavailable”. Most reviews are bad reviews. The main reasons for bad reviews are that the product is too thin and the user interface is very poor.
Nevertheless, a very similar product has suddenly appeared recently (again, on IndieGoGo). Although its $ 25,000 goal is only half the ambition of ELF emmit, its crowdfunding has already exceeded the previous fund of ELF emmit by $ 100,000. “NeoRhythm” is a product very similar to ELF emmit. According to the IndieGoGo webpage, it “uses technology to stimulate the brain to work at a specific frequency.” “Users can choose the mental state they want, wear the technology on their head, and then control it through the app or gestures.” At present, the crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo has only 44 hours left (when this article was published (It may be over), and the product has raised up to $ 309,827, which is 1239% of its $ 25,000 target.
According to “The creators of “NeoRhythm” said that the product is scientifically proven. In the data sheet, they mentioned two studies published by the same author in September 2019 and October 2019, respectively: Relaxation Research and Attention Research. These two studies were published in the Open Access Library (OALib) journal, a journal that allows anyone to publish articles for $ 99.
This product manual is full of buzzwords such as “electromagnetic waves” and “brain waves.” It claims to help users reduce stress, sleep, meditate, recharge, focus, and even manage pain. “The dominant frequency and accompanying frequency of the new rhythm (NeoRhythm) are scientifically proven. These frequencies can synchronize the brain and create a perfect mental environment for the ideal state of mind,” they said in the manual Of the product. Although it’s unclear what they mean, it does sound appealing.
At the end of the product manual, MDCN Technology Co., Ltd., which created a “new rhythm” (NeoRhythm), stated as follows: “MDCN Technology is not a licensed medical or health care company and has no expertise in diagnosis, inspection, or treatment. The company does not provide medical services. “,” This product is designed to help people out of their predicament, and no one should use this product for commercial purposes. “
The side effects of this technology are still to be largely explored
Some people worry that for some mental health problems that require in-depth treatment, this technology may only bring about a temporary improvement. There is also a concern that those who do not like to treat their mental illness with drugs may also use this technology as an alternative, which may cause them to completely abandon other options and further worsen their condition.
There are other potentially more dangerous risks. Our bodies operate based on tiny currents: for example, our heart uses tiny currents to beat. It is unclear what the long-term hazards of using electromagnetic therapy may be, especially considering that these devices do not require doctor’s approval and may cause other potential health problems. If you use a pacemaker, an insulin pump, or are pregnant, this treatment needs to be absolutely avoided.
It may seem like a simple expedient to change your mood with technology, but it is dangerous to buy unknown equipment without professional medical personnel verification. Fortunately, there is no such thing as a “brain hacker”, which is another marketing term they say.
Translator: Xiao Zhuo