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MC Square X1 Stimulates Brain Waves, Makes You Smarter?
Posted by Jennifer Hooker at 7:42 AM on November 15, 2007
The MC Square X1—a get-smart-quick device—is already huge in Korea. Its makers say it helps you relax and concentrate by targeting your brain's sensory preceptors with light and sound. It looks like a little MP3 player with an accompanying set of video glasses, but instead of displaying video, the glasses transmit pulsing red dots that are synchronized to music or nature sounds. The X1 also includes a voice recorder—so you can listen to your own soothing voice?— plus a miniSD slot for your photos and music.
The device can take you through six different regimens for better sleep, improved concentration, memory improvement and relaxation, each running at about 15 minutes. The inventors say that doctors at University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University—both in Philadelphia—have put the MC Square through real clinical tests. Some studies have shown a 14% increase in memorization after about a week. That is, as long as the thing doesn't give you a seizure: since it is a device that emanates light pulses, MC Square says those who have suffered from seizures in the past should stay away. Ditto for kids under 13. Everyone else should pay $400 for it, in their opinion. [MC Square]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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SkyLab
Posted 4:24 PM 14/11/07
I thought there was something like this before! Reading the article I was vaguely remembering the very thing you guys are talking about. Cheez-a-riffic in hindsight but it was at least plausible at the time.
SkyLab
qbrad
Posted 4:13 PM 14/11/07
@qbrad: Damn spelling. sEIzure.
qbrad
mainlinx
Posted 4:13 PM 14/11/07
what? a PMP version of brainage?
mainlinx
RainyDayInterns
Posted 4:12 PM 14/11/07
Did somebody say "stimulating brain waves?" We have been doing that with the MindSpa for almost a year now:
Our brains are so large that we may need new digs. We do find it relaxing. One definite benefit is the ability to relax and sleep when we travel.
Check out our FirstLook here:
[www.rainydaymagazine.com]
RainyDayInterns
qbrad
Posted 4:11 PM 14/11/07
@jackrabbix: My dad had one too. From the Sharper Image, so of course was built like crap. But it sounded and looked kewl. Glad I never got any siezures from it.
qbrad
jackrabbix
Posted 4:10 PM 14/11/07
My mother had a hippie friend when I was much younger (maybe the late 80s?) who had something similar. It was called a 'light & sound' machine, and worked on the same principle, with 4 red LEDs in each eyepiece, and headphones that blocked outside sounds.
Instead of music, it pulsed musical tones to seemingly random rythms.
I would use it between classes in school, and it certainly made it an iota easer to pay attention.
Of course, it's probable that any actual benefit I gained from it was purely psychosomatic...
jackrabbix
cayton
Posted 4:09 PM 14/11/07
Let a computer guide how I think? Sounds like PR talk for 'robot rebellion'.
cayton
The Chad
Posted 5:33 PM 14/11/07
the girl wearing the goggles reminds me of michael j fox as the daughter in back to the future II
The Chad
JomeyQ
Posted 6:21 PM 14/11/07
In a related press release later in the day, the company introduced an exercise device, the X2, which stimulates your muscles, resulting in a perfect physique. The user simply stands on a platform while a large belt wrapped around the hips shakes violently. The device even includes a dock for the X1, allowing the vibrations of the exerciser belt to be synchronized to the pulsing lights in the display. The combination of pulsing lights to make you smarter and a vibrating belt to make you toned and strong will completely redefine a market where other companies' products require exertion.
According to the company, the entire line of these "effortless" mental and physical exercise products should be available, and then discontinued sometime in the second quarter of the 20th century.
JomeyQ
Wilson Rothman
Posted 5:58 PM 14/11/07
@The Chad: You're saying Giz NYC reporter Jennifer Hooker reminds you of Michael J Fox? Man, I'm glad I'm not your therapist.
Wilson Rothman
electrikecho
Posted 8:25 PM 14/11/07
... but when you take the glasses off, you realize you're in some creepy dude's basement, with a ball gag in your mouth getting ass pounded by some rent-a-cop named "Zed"
No thanks, I can just torrent some hemi-sync programs and throw those on my MP3 player.
electrikecho
albokay
Posted 9:33 PM 14/11/07
I hope the sound coming out of those earphones is loud enough to drown out the laughter of those who found out they own that.
albokay
spinner
Posted 10:37 PM 14/11/07
I've seen something similar, touted as a lucid dream machine. A friend in school (of New Age BS stock) had one, and swore he had vivid lucid dreams 9/10 times. You'd wear it for 15 minutes before bed or as you're falling asleep, with modulating tones / frequencies instead of noises or music.
If it can do that, I want!
spinner
coolrepublica
Posted 1:07 AM 15/11/07
Is there a program to make me forget I ever saw this video? It would come in handy right about now.
People who buy this thing, I got a beach front property for sale in Montana. Interested?
coolrepublica
koralex90
Posted 8:58 AM 15/11/07
this is the same as Btamin - the program iriver includes in their players.
[www.btamin.net]
they transmit brain waves to let you do virtually everything. they released like 40 cds that allow u to lose weight, concentrate, calm down, have heightened study skills, and all these other stuff by listening to these songs with certain frequency waves..
i tried it but.. it "seems" to work.. but after you lose this "belief" it kinda seems to die out..
koralex90