Digital manufacturing leader Protolabs has announced that Nūrio has been selected as the latest Cool Idea Award winner for innovation in consumer technology.
Nūrio is the world’s smallest wearable consumer EEG device that simply slips over the ear like a headphone and provides consumers with app and cloud-based command capabilities to control any internet of things-enabled device integrated on the Nūrio cloud — comparable to Alexa Skills — with just their brain waves, no voice commands required.
Nūrio streams data collected from users’ mental activity via Bluetooth to any smartphone, enabling 
Source: Nurioconsumers to visualize their brainpower and valuable health insights on the Nūrio mobile app.
“We aim to provide the world with access to their mental data to help better understand the previously mysterious mind,” said Nūrio founder and CEO Ian Rowan. “We’re entering a new era of leveraging the mind to control the connected world, no matter of a person’s physical abilities."
As the wearables industry continues to proliferate, Nūrio believes opportunity lies in looking at data from new angles to reveal insights into what is going on in various parts of our bodies and optimizing our health in completely new ways.
Another key element for adoption is keeping costs down as much as possible so that this technology is accessible to the general population. With the help of Protolabs’ Cool Idea Award, Nūrio has been able to significantly expedite production, putting the device on-track to come to market in mid-2020 for under $229 USD.
Protolabs also helped manufacture the full plastic casing of the Nūrio device with injection molding. In the future, Nūrio will also work with Protolabs to produce its own essential electrodes via CNC machining once the design is complete.
“Nūrio’s technology has the potential to completely redefine the quantified self and even tap into human capabilities that previously seemed impossible,” said Vicki Holt, president and CEO of Protolabs. “We’re proud to support such innovators who are giving people the ability to leverage their brain power in new and helpful ways.”
