Emotiv

Market position

The company describes itself as the world's number one wireless EEG platform and cites more than 23,000 scientific citations, use across more than 4,000 institutions, and adoption by Fortune 500 companies; it calls Epoc X the most cited mobile headset in history. Independent research groups at Macquarie University and Flinders University reported that the original EPOC delivered signal quality comparable to other research-level devices, and the original EPOC was among the first mobile EEG devices on the market.

Mobile, wireless form factors intended for use outside the laboratory and during motion, ranging from a two-channel earbud to a 32-channel cap; non-invasive BCI that avoids surgical implants; an integrated stack combining hardware, acquisition and analysis software, cloud storage, APIs and pre-trained cognitive models; and interoperability with standard research tooling such as EEGLAB, MATLAB, PsychoPy and Lab Streaming Layer.

Technology

Non-invasive, wireless EEG sensing across 2 to 32 channels, using saline-based wet sensors on EPOC+ and hydrophilic polymer sensors on Insight, with 9-axis inertial motion sensing and Bluetooth data transmission. Signal processing yields performance metrics such as interest, excitement, stress, engagement, relaxation and attention, plus trained mental commands and facial-expression detection via machine learning. Data can be stored locally or in Emotiv Cloud, streamed in real time through Lab Streaming Layer, and accessed programmatically through the Cortex API; the company describes cloud-based processing pipelines, pre-trained models for stress, focus and cognitive load, serverless backend integration on Google Cloud Platform and use of Gemini for context interpretation.

Go-to-market

Direct online sales of headsets and software licences from emotiv.com with promotional bundles, supported by a research hub and published validation literature aimed at academic buyers, developer-facing tooling (SDKs, Cortex API, Node-RED, downloadable EmotivBCI) to seed third-party applications, consumer app-store distribution of brain-controlled games, and case studies in music, drone racing, education and neuromarketing. Earlier go-to-market included a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for the Insight headset and participation in the Disney/Techstars Accelerator.

Academic and scientific researchers, brain-computer interface and application developers, enterprise and market/user-research teams (the site cites Fortune 500 companies and agencies), educators and students, and individual consumers interested in cognitive performance, wellness and mind-controlled games.

Geography

Headquartered in San Francisco, California (490 Post St, Suite 824), with facilities in Sydney, Australia and in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The company was originally founded in Australia.

History

Tan Le founded a separate Australian company, Emotiv Systems, in 2003 with Nam Do, Allan Snyder and Neil Weste; that work produced the first EPOC neuroheadset in 2009. In 2010 Le split from the partnership to establish a US entity, Emotiv Lifesciences Inc., with Geoffrey Mackellar. The company was founded in 2011, and in December 2013 Emotiv Lifesciences formally changed its name to Emotiv Inc. In 2013 it released the EPOC+ 14-channel wireless system and ran a Kickstarter campaign for the 5-channel Insight headset, which raised $1,643,117 against a $100,000 target and earned an Edison Award in April 2014. Insight became generally available in October 2015, and in 2015 Emotiv joined the Disney/Techstars Accelerator, presenting at Demo Day that October.

Risks & controversies

Emotiv has made access to raw EEG data a separately paid option and implemented countermeasures intended to deter third-party software from interoperating with its headsets and USB dongles; free software has nonetheless been developed to access headset data. Third-party project authors believe the data flowing between dongle and headset is unencrypted.