The new wearable device helps you be present

If you find it difficult to concentrate or stay present in the moment, you can now purchase a device that tells you how often your mind wanders.

That’s the idea behind the first wearable device from a wellness startup called Atlas. The idea is to help you understand how your brain operates in different scenarios so you can optimize important activities, whether it’s work or social encounters.

The Atlas 1.0 is an electroencephalography (EEG) monitor that is placed behind the ear using an adhesive pad on the skin and continuously measures brain activity throughout the day. It also captures your electrodermal activity, movement, as well as speech activity and speech patterns (and not the actual words you are saying) using additional sensors.

Those signals are sent to Atlas’ AI-powered system to understand your level of presence or attention, how stressed you were, and how much energy you expended during a given activity, such as attending a meeting, spending time with your family, or completing a task at work.

By looking at those stats in the companion mobile app, Atlas says you’ll get an idea of ​​when you performed well and when you didn’t.

“Was I really present at dinner with my family? Who makes me feel most like myself? Do I really perform better under pressure? Why do I define a successful career in minutes instead of relieving stress? When I’m exhausted, what do I still go to?” These are the kinds of questions Atlas hopes to answer with its device packed with sensors and artificial intelligence.

The company says that over months of recording, you’ll have high-fidelity patterns from which you can interpret how you perform in these different circumstances and identify when you were at your best.

That should guide you to replicate the conditions that allowed you to focus and participate better. Or as Atlas says, “identify the patterns, people, and habits that drive peak performance.”

Atlas claims its algorithms are trained on the world’s largest real-life brain activity data set, with more than 500,000 brain recordings.

That’s enough, but the proof will really be in the baked pudding for several months. I can see the appeal of something like this in today’s environment of multiple screens competing for your attention and cumulatively harming your ability to stay present. The question is: how useful is data as a weapon against these formidable forces of distraction?

You’ll have to wait a little to find out. San Francisco-based Atlas, which has raised $24 million to develop activity tracking products, says its wearable device will cost $500 to start. You’ll also have to shell out $30 a month for new sensors, stickers, and a subscription to artificial intelligence services to extract insights from your data.

The first three months are included with your purchase; Pre-orders are now open and deliveries will begin in the first quarter of 2027.

Check out the Atlas wearable on the company’s website.

Source: Atlas