Meditation Tech: Muse 2 Brain-Sensing Wearable Review

Despite years of scientific research proving that regular meditation helps you sleep better, stress less and focus more, it's still widely considered esoteric.

Let's be honest, most of us have a hard time getting on board with it. Only in the last few years - probably thanks to the growth of yoga practice - has the idea of meditation and its benefits become more ubiquitous. Still, most people don’t really know how to meditate - even if they want to. And their first attempts are probably tainted by difficulty focusing and thus have led to a loss of interest.

Well, that’s why a few years ago, a Canadian startup called InteraXon built a device called Muse, a head-wearable that senses your brain waves and deciphers how well you’re meditating. InteraXon thinks that if we’re shown how to meditate properly, we’ll stick to it and thus reap the rewards due to it being gamified.

And now we've recently seen the launch of an updated iteration, Muse 2, which has been built to engage you in guided meditations, with real-time feedback to help your brain meditate while tracking your progress and setting reminders to help build a consistent practice.

But does it really work?

Lee Bell


Muse 2 is a slim-sized, consumer EEG, which stands for electroencephalogram. Widely used by neuroscience researchers around the world, EEGs use advanced signal processing to interpret your mental activity. Until recently, EEGs were huge hat-sized devices that you would never dream of wearing in public. However, Muse changes all this. The original device was the first of its kind to shrink this technology into a consumer product. However, they’ve gone and made it even better with the release of the Muse 2.

It’s now much more refined, taking up less space on your bonce and thus looking slightly less weird than the previous version (although still kinda weird if you’re not used to it). It almost looks like a pair of headphones from the ‘90s worn the wrong way around. Nevertheless, it’s comfortable and in no time you’ll forget it's even there.

In case you’re wondering how the device works, Muse’s EEG system uses signal processing algorithms to detect the range of brain electrical activity and transform it into easy-to-understand and digestible data via a connected app. The app then decomposes these raw brainwave signals into their component oscillations, non-periodic characteristics, transient brain events, and noise, and uses techniques developed through machine learning to make the experience responsive, in real time.

Lee Bell

In terms of construction, the Muse 2 does worry me somewhat as the forehead band which holds the sensors does look quite delicate. The Muse 2 doesn’t come with a protective carry case - you have to buy this separately - and I think this would probably be wise considering its £240 price tag.

If you are a fan of the original Muse, you should know that since the last version, the Muse 2 has been fitted with a PPG (photoplethysmography) sensor to the forehead band. This uses a light-based technology to sense the rate of blood flow as controlled by the heart's pumping action. There’s a pulse oximetry breath sensor now as well which is located together with the heart sensor on the front, right-hand side of the band. Then there are two body sensors also: a gyroscope and accelerometer found behind the ears.

Finally, there’s an adjustable arm design so it can fit even the biggest of heads, and then a micro-USB slot for charging.


Setting-up the Muse 2 is surprisingly straight forward. You have to download and install the Muse app and connect the device to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth.

Before your first session, a circle is displayed on the app that shows you if you’re wearing your headband correctly. This headband status indicator basically gives you an easy way to understand if Muse is sensing your brain properly. The better you fit the headband, the better signal you’ll get, and the more accurate and responsive Muse will be - leading to a better meditation session. As the sections of the headband status indicator fill in, color will start to flow. The more color you see, the better your signal quality.

Lee Bell

As you can see from the app screen grab, the black section corresponds to three sensors on the center of the headband, and if they lose contact with the skin on your forehead, your headband will need to be adjusted for a better fit.

Each of the four colored sections corresponds to one of the brain signal sensors. When a section is filled in and color is flowing, you know that the sensor it corresponds to has good contact with your skin and is getting a good signal.

When you see all five sections filled in, you know Muse is sensing your brain correctly and you’re ready to start meditating.

I should also note that it can take up to a minute for sensors to make sure contact is correct, and the annoying thing is you have to calibrate this every time you want to meditate

Meditation time

To start meditating, you have to choose for how long via the app and what type of meditation you’d like to track, be it mind, breath, heart or body - each of which uses the Muse 2’s different sensors.

The Mind meditation option uses the Muse 2’s seven calibrated sensors to detect and measure the activity of your brain. The Body meditation option teaches you to remain as still as possible by using the accelerometer and gyroscope sensors, the Heart meditation option uses the optical heart sensor to help you lower your heart rate, and the Breathing option employs the three previously-mentioned sensors to guide you through breathing exercises.

This might sound weird, but the way it guides you through your meditation is with signals that replicate the weather.

Lee Bell

Weather sounds are played back via connected headphones which reflect what's happening in your brain in real time. This will change as it studies the brain signals and translates them into rain or calm weather with tweeting birds if you're especially calm.

If the mind wanders and your focus shifts, Muse will detect this and the weather sounds played back to you will get more intense, with heavier rain and even storms if you’re particularly stressed. I loved how this helped me to interpret fairly quickly my goal: to remain calm and keep the weather in this environment. This focusing and gamification are essentially what teaches you to meditate better with each session.

After each session, you’ll see how you did through a series of graphs and charts in the Muse meditation app. Muse will show you how your brain, heart, breath, and body did from moment to moment through simple, easy to understand data, giving you a score on how well you did and how you’re improving over time. You can also write a journal entry in the session summary to reflect how you thought the meditation went, allowing you to see how you’ve improved in terms of your feelings.

Lee Bell

Does it really work?

S does the Muse 2 really work? Well, in all honesty, I think it really does. If halfway through a meditation session, and you purposely lose focus, you’ll shortly hear this reflected in a burst of stormy weather. It’s pretty crazy, really.

It’s a very unconventional device indeed, especially for those who’ve never seen anything like this before. Therefore, not everyone will be comfortable with wearing it in public. But the good news is, you don’t have to - you could just reserve your meditation time for when you’re alone.

It’s hard to believe that such a small, simply-designed device can actually read your brain signals. But from my experience using it, we feel like we’ve actually been able to meditate.


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