PowerPoint Presentation

Jay Vidyarthijay@interaXon.ca@jayvidyarthiTrevor Colemantrevor@interaXon.ca@trevorcolemanBrain Sensing TechnologiesTrevor Coleman, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of InteraXon, a Toronto company that develops brain sensing technologies.

Jay Vidyarthi

We're makers of Muse, the brain sensing headband -- that's exactly what ti sounds like: a headband that reads the electrical signals generated by your brain and translates them into something a computer can understand.

it connects to your smartphone or tablet, and to apps that can interpret those signals and give you information about what's going on in your brain.

Our Unique ChallengesI'm here today, with Jay Vidyarthi, our senior intera to talk about the unique challenges we face in designing user experiences with brain sensing technology, and the unique ways we're dealing with those challenges.

but first in order to do that, I need to tell you a little bit about how brain sensing technology works, talk about some of the problems that we face, and then I'll hand it over to jay who can talk about how we're working to solve them.

The thing that makes all this possible is the fact that your brain is fundamentally an electic organ -- every time a neuron fires, it generates a tiny electrochemical charge.

Across the billions of neurons, and trillions of synapses in your brain, these signals sum together and can actually be read with a sensor placed against the skin. That's what brain sensing technology is.

And while the technology to read brain signals is quite old (the first human EEG was recorded in 1924) the technology to *understand* them is very new. And the application of that technology that connects to peoples lives in a meaningful, useful, everday kind of way -- well that hasn't hit the market yet (although I hear you can pre-order it). But it's that part of the puzzle that we think we've solved at Interaxon.

In 2007, when my co-founders and I started Interaxon, the only technology that existed was clinical EEG systems that cost $6,000 each and connected to a computer via a fibre optic cable.

It wasn't until 2009 when the first affordable, consumer-level EEG systems began to hit the market. There was the neurosky mindSet and the emotiv epoc.

Bright IdeasWe had extensive experience with both of these systems -- we used the neurosky mindset at the olympics in 2010 when we let people in vancouver control the lights on the CN Tower, Niagara Falls and the Parliament Buildings with their brainwaves.

But the more we used these systems, the more we realized how they were lacking.

For one, they were uncomfortable, they were difficult to put on and take off, they were ugly and probably the biggest problem: they didn't DO anything.

Now don't get me wrong, they read brainwaves just fine. But so what? We'd had EEG for 85 years at that point. Where is it today?Examples of current TCC applications (Demonstrate spectrum of)1 Asimo Robotics2 Matel Gaming / Entertainment3 Sleep Trainer health + Wellness4 .

About the most exciting thing you could do with either of the headsets was to levitate a ball. This was such a great idea that they made it into two different toys -- the mattel mindflex and the star wars force trainer.

Beyond that, they were essentially useless. University researchers were excited about access to relatively cheap, relatively good EEG data, but the general public collectively said a giant 'ho hum.

Which is, of course, crazy! this is brain sensing technology, it's the future!

But people don't care about technology. They have families and children and jobs and hobbies and parties and fights with their boyfriend and investments and lives. People have lives. And they're way too busy with their lives to care about technologies.

If you want to introduce a technology, you need to find a way to fit in to their lives.

2.0(and beyond)So at Interaxon, we're aiming to be the first second generation brain sensing company.First Generation

Technology first

Possibilities

HW, Algorithm, App all separate

Goal: advance technologyHumans first

Real use cases

Holistic approach to development

Goal: Improve lives

So where the first generation companies were * putting the technology first* talking about possibilities* treating hardware development, algorithm development and application development as separate processes* goal is to advance technology

At interaxon we decided to* putting the human first* talk about real use cases* take a holistic approach to application and algorithm developmentgoal is to improve people's lives

We don't really think of ourselves as a technology company. We're an experience company, we're a making your life better company.

Core ValuesOpenResponsibleCompassionHuman FocusedInspiringAnd that's reflected in our core values as a company we strive to be:* Open be honest, curious, dynamic, passionate and fun!* Responsible we value honesty, diversity, and integrity in everything we do* Compassionate we help everyone live in happier and healthier lives* Human Focused honoring people and enhancing their unique life experience* Inspiring we strive to uncover and expand our potential through helping others and challenging ourselves daily* Inventive be courageous, be bold, embrace change as you challenge everyone that says no

It's this approach to developing novel applications with this technology that we think is our core differentiator and its what is going to make the difference in taking this technology from gee-whiz gadgetry to an essential part of people's everyday lives.

A new approach to UXBut if you want to be a different kind of company, you can't do things the way they've already been done.

To bring this new kind of technlogy to the world we needed a different kind of process. And that's what Jay's going to tell you about now, about how we've been building a new kind of process to help bring brain sensing technology to life.Human-centered design is not about technology, and its not about aesthetics.Its about empathy.

Define the following term in your own words.

Be casual and truthful. What do you really think?

Design

Form ever follows function.

- Louis Sullivan, 1896 If people are made safer, more comfortable, more eager to purchase, more efficient, or just happier, the designer has succeeded.

- Henry Dreyfuss, 1951 Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.

- Herbert Simon, 1969 Computer technology may be strictly logical

but our irrational minds are in control of these rational tools! The human mind is irrational.

Logical Conclusions + Emotional State + Social Circumstance + Perceptual Biases + etc.

= Decision / Attribution / Action

A good technological interface connects irrational minds to logical computersLogical Symbol ManipulatorIrrational UserInterface Tailored to Irrational MindControls

Usability is all about optimizing this interface.Logical Symbol ManipulatorIrrational UserInterface Tailored to Irrational MindControls Norman Doors

Normans book is from 1988!

The old view of the systemCPUMemoryetcSoftwareDisplay(output)Touchscreen/ buttons (input)

A sample engineering problemCPUetcSoftwareDisplay(output)Touchscreen/ buttons (input)ERRORMemory

The holistic systemIrrational UserCPUetcSoftwareDisplay(output)Touchscreen/ buttons (input)Memory

A sample usability problem.Irrational UserCPUMemoryetcSoftwareDisplay(output)Touchscreen/ buttons (input)ERROR We can estimate, but we cannot truly predict the behaviour of the irrational human mind...

We can estimate, but we cannot truly predict the behaviour of the irrational human mind...

...how could we empathize without feedback from our audience?

Usability Methodology:ImplementEvaluateRelease Validating usability was only the beginning.

...it doesnt capture the real context of life.

Validating usability was only the beginning.

Now we designfor experience.

User Experience (UX) :Ensuring our application is not only usable / functional, but also that it cultivates certain subjective experiences in people.

P. Morvilles UX HoneycombDesigning for experience

Motivations Why people interact with your application

Expectations How people think it should work

Perceptions How the application influences their senses

Abilities How able they are to interact with the product or the service

Context Where and when do people engage with it? Whats on their mind?

Culture Manners, language, behavioral norms, social norms, expectations, etc.Designing for experience Usability Methodology:ImplementEvaluateRelease SUCCESSFAILURE?ImplementEvaluateReleaseUsability Methodology: Usability evaluation isnt enough, because re-development can be costly. User Experience Methodology:Observe / Analyze(Re)-DesignWireframe / PrototypeEvaluateImplement + ReleaseGood enough? User Experience Methodology:Observe / Analyze(Re)-DesignWireframe / PrototypeEvaluateImplement + ReleaseCOGNITIVE / PERCEPTUAL PSYCHOLOGYGood enough? Good enough?COGNITIVE / PERCEPTUAL PSYCHOLOGYUser Experience Methodology:Observe / Analyze(Re)-DesignWireframe / PrototypeEvaluateImplement + ReleaseA FULL DESIGN PROCESS BEFORE IMPLEMENTING While the up-front research and designseemed like the ideal approach...

It doesnt account for the evolving nature of real projects (pivots).

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Sprint # 3Agile UXDesignWireframeEvaluateDesignWireframeEvaluateDesignWireframeEvaluateEtc....

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Sprint # 3Up-front User Researchw/ Med-fidelity PrototypeDesignWireframeEvaluateDesignWireframeEvaluateDesignWireframeEvaluateEtc....Empathic,Aspirational

Information Architecture+ InterfaceDesignOur Unique Approach

How did we get here? Human-centered design is not about technology, and its not about aesthetics.Its about empathy. Empathic,Aspirational

Information Architecture+ InterfaceDesign

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Sprint # 3Etc....Our Unique ApproachUp-front User Researchw/ Med-fidelity PrototypeDesignWireframeEvaluateDesignWireframeEvaluateDesignWireframeEvaluate Empathic human-centered design should be skeptical of technological marvels. Be a skeptic.

Be empathic.

Champion the people. Jay passes back to Trevor here

No Problem Is Unique So this is the part where I tell you that I lied.

At the beginning of this talk, I said Id tell you about some of the unique challenges that we face at Interaxon because we work with such a unique technology.

But what Ive learned over the past 6 years is that no matter what technology you are using, the challenge is always the same. How do you use this technology to make someones life better.

It doesnt matter if its brain sensing technology, wireless power, space travel or a better mousetrap. The person who answers that question first will achieve massive success. And the person who solves it best will clean up the rest.

Technology doesnt matter, great design matters, and that means keeping the humans front and center.

More Info:www.findyourmuse.com

developers@interaxon.ca

Twitter: @interaxonHey Developers: Were hiring!http://interaxon.theresumator.com Thanks very much!