Wearables

Hands-on: Thync mood-changing wearable is like doing drugs, without all the bad stuff

Hands-on: Thync mood-changing wearable is like doing drugs, without all the bad stuff
Thync is a product that promises to change your mood – and it actually works (Photo: Will Shanklin/Gizmag.com)
Thync is a product that promises to change your mood – and it actually works (Photo: Will Shanklin/Gizmag.com)
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The companion smartphone app, where you control your mode and levels (or, as we like to call it, "dosage") (Photo: Will Shanklin/Gizmag.com)
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The companion smartphone app, where you control your mode and levels (or, as we like to call it, "dosage") (Photo: Will Shanklin/Gizmag.com)
Thync is a product that promises to change your mood – and it actually works (Photo: Will Shanklin/Gizmag.com)
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Thync is a product that promises to change your mood – and it actually works (Photo: Will Shanklin/Gizmag.com)
Jamie Tyler Ph.D., CSO and co-founder of Thync, who introduced us to the product at CES
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Jamie Tyler Ph.D., CSO and co-founder of Thync, who introduced us to the product at CES
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After spending a week walking the showroom floors of CES, a wearable claiming to change your mood is probably going to activate your BS sensors. But today our demo of the Thync wearable was the rare CES meeting that's everything it's pretending to be – possibly more. Your neighborhood drug dealer might want to start looking for a new line of work.

The Thync has some similarities to TENS units (like those found in Chiropractor's offices), but instead of slapping pads onto your lower back, you place them on your head. It uses "neurosignaling" to either calm you down or energize you.

As the company explains, "Neurosignaling uses electronic or ultrasonic waveforms to signal neural pathways in the brain. When specific pathways are stimulated, they trigger a shift in your state of mind or energy level."

Are your BS sensors going off yet? If so, we don't blame you. The technology world is full of stuff that sounds almost exactly like this, and most of it is about as authentic as Milli Vanilli.

But Thync works. During our demo with the Thync team, I tried the calming mode followed by the energized mode, and it was like drugs – minus all the bad stuff. More specifically, the calming mode was much like smoking a joint (minus the munchies, bloodshot eyes and memory loss). And though we were expecting the energizing mode to be similar to caffeine, it was more like the effects of Ephedrine (I used it a few times back in the 90s, before it started killing athletes, when it was sold over-the-counter). Rather than an antsy, over-caffeinated state, I found it to be more like a stimulated clarity – like a veil of fuzzy grogginess that I wasn't even aware of had been lifted.

Jamie Tyler Ph.D., CSO and co-founder of Thync, who introduced us to the product at CES
Jamie Tyler Ph.D., CSO and co-founder of Thync, who introduced us to the product at CES

Needless to say, reaching these states by sitting down with a couple of pads stuck to my head for 20 (calming) or 15 (energizing) minutes is a pretty amazing thing. There was no pain or discomfort (the team recommended I increase the levels gradually, which helped to ease the change in mood), and – best of all – the feelings lasted for several hours after the meeting ended.

Another interesting tidbit is that the two modes didn't seem to be mutually exclusive. I expected the energizing mode to pull me out of the calming mode, and it may have a little bit, but it's more like the two coexisted side-by-side. I walked away from the meeting feeling calm and energized – pretty much the ideal state for venturing out into the world.

We're fully aware of the potential for placebo effects in situations like this, but I adamantly believe that isn't what was happening (the company says it's done extensive testing that shows its product is far more than a placebo, and it links to academic research on the product from its website). I'll put it this way: if this was a placebo, then so was every recreational drug I did in my youth.

The team also noted that my speech slowed down and I took a more laid-back stance in my chair when using the calming one, and my speech sped up with more toe-tapping after energizing. They weren't making this up: once they pointed it out, I realized it as well.

As far as the device itself, it's a small head-worn contraption (because it's still a prototype, the company didn't allow pictures from our demo) that connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth Low Energy. Sticky pads that stick to your head are connected to the device. You then use your wirelessly-connected phone to set the on-demand mode, and adjust the strength.

The company says the device is perfectly safe and doesn't have any side effects. I can vouch that there was no withdrawal, hangover or painful come-down period. If anything, it just left a craving (not unhealthy, as far as we can tell) to use it again.

The companion smartphone app, where you control your mode and levels (or, as we like to call it, "dosage") (Photo: Will Shanklin/Gizmag.com)
The companion smartphone app, where you control your mode and levels (or, as we like to call it, "dosage") (Photo: Will Shanklin/Gizmag.com)

Our enthusiasm about this product isn't hyperbole: we believe Thync is one of the breakthrough technologies to come out of CES this year, and a product to keep a very close eye on. Much like the Oculus Rift, you have to try it to really get what the hype is about. But once you do, you may be an immediate convert.

The company does say that different people respond to it in different ways, and some people will feel the effects more after doing it a second or third time (another similarity to cannabis). Some people, they say, don't report much of anything at all. I wasn't one of those people, but perhaps an easy full-money-back return policy would be appropriate for the launch.

Fortunately you won't have long to wait to get your hands (erm, head) on it. It's set to launch in 2015, possibly sooner than later. We don't know what it's going to cost yet, but we believe this is the rare product that could potentially change your life for the better. Though it isn't being sold as a health or medical device, this consumer product could be one powerful part of a multi-pronged treatment for depression, fatigue or drug addiction. Or, if you're like me, simply feeling better as you go about your day.

You can read more about Thync at the product page below.

Product page: Thync

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13 comments
13 comments
TeenLaQueefa
Well dangit, I want one!
Honestly it sounds like the most interesting electronic device I've ever heard of.
Theo McGuckin
I just recently read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick and this sounds eerily like the prototype for the emotion controller from that book.
Harriet Russell
"it just left a craving (not unhealthy, as far as we can tell) to use it again." Hmmm, "craving" doesn't sound good. How can that *not* be unhealthy? I'd like to hear about the effects of longer-term use.
Still, I'm craving one even without having tried it! Never had much luck meditating, but maybe this would do something similar.
David Bell
Potential wireheads beware - the Droud is near! This sounds seriously cool, and seriously scary at once...
Wulfher
Straight out of Ice Pirates!
sleat
Now, if this machine could teach you how to control your OWN brain state without it, at will, it would be perfect!
Oh, also, it would need an ironclad use-case blocker so that it could not be used (with nefarious firmware from who-knows-where) to tune our human wetware to psychopathic modes.
If such a device is able to stimulate the brain to make it feel relaxed or energized I suspect it could also be used for less-useful (to the wearer) brain-hacks as well.
Imagine the (hopefully yet far-off) ability of a device similar to this to run subtle pop-up ads and various sorts of propaganda. If the capability is even remotely possible, I'd suspect that Google will be buying these guys soon.
Bob
If they had a version to lose weight, it would be a gold mine.
cattleherder
Sounds interesting, but I'm wondering about the side effects of messing with one's brain.
Developing psychological dependency?
Noel K Frothingham
Harriett Russell, there's nothing wrong with craving. How you address those cravings is what matters.
Andrej Radoš
LIFE, for every cell in the body means dynamic relaxation and tension by inner "intent". Everything that does something to make this easier or less needed will weaken or restrict, whether you're an amoeba or a man, body and mind. This is why drugs, laziness and avoidance lead to lessened capabilities and ultimately DEATH. Unless of course it's incapacitation in need of for example insulin or prosthesis. Thync seems to belong to the avoidance or drugs class. Accept, adapt and, commit yourself to reality is what you need to get a satisfying life.
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