Thync piece: Do mind-altering wearables live up to the billing? - best electric toothbrush on the market

It is straight by Natalie Salmanowitz Silicon ValleyThe Su Jing.
The warehouse is empty except for some bright warehouses
Color furniture Ikea
Large whiteboards and refrigerators are placed on the walls.
In a corner, a group of testers sat on the pod.
Shaped seat, looks like a triangle
Plastic bandage above the temple.
A group of attractive marketing experts flocked around them, and their sports suits showed the company's logo.
"How do you feel?
They ask from time to time.
We're all in the center of the runway incubator -- San Francisco's starting point --
One of the latest ideas for field testing-
Change the wearable device: a product called thsync.
This is one of the growing consensus that electrical stimulation can change brain function to alleviate various problems such as depression, stroke and lack of attention.
The devices on the market include those that are advertised as clinical therapies, such as Fisher Wallace, and those that have self-healing
Hacker spirit like Foc. us.
Thsync has different consumers-it sells itself as a brain wearable device to the rest of us.
The company recently announced that it has sold thousands of devices in the year since its launch.
In February, the company launched the latest setting "good night", claiming it improved sleep quality faster than melatonin or meditation.
But is sync just hyped in the waves of nerve stimulation, or is there something?
I'm here to check.
Long before thsync went public in June, I had registered as one of its first users.
A month after the release, I received a black box in the mail with the forwarding of thsync-slash logo.
The stylish and simple design of this device is the most popular at present.
I attached the round triangle plastic badge to my temple with adhesive.
It is connected to a wire that terminates on two sticky electrode strips.
These are attached to areas where the nerves are close to the skin-one above the right eyebrow and the other behind the ear or behind the neck.
Unlike competitors who use cranial electrotherapy or cranial DC stimulation (tDCS)
Thsync does not target the brain directly.
Instead, the triangle module applies the pulse current to the electrode, aiming at the nerves of the face and neck, and then adjusting some hormones behind the battleor-
Flight response.
By raising or lowering these hormones, thsync claims to have two effects-calmorenergy, the "atmosphere", in thsync's case ".
Its makers insist that it is better to stimulate accessible nerves than direct brain stimulation.
Thsync's Vibes Sumon Pal chief says this is because "the skull and other layers between the head and the cortex greatly filter the signal", making direct brain stimulation less specific.
This is based on the paper published by the company.
The science behind this consumer product is stronger than most.
CEO Isy Goldwasser said it took the company three years to make sure thsync was more effective than placebo, which he called "enemy ".
Rois Cohen Kadosh of Oxford University research tDCS says thsync's empirical research "is a very positive point for them", although he sees long-term uncertainty
The word security means that the technology is not ready for commercial use.
As soon as you put it on, some of the smooth effects go away-I ended up looking like I was trying to put an eye mask on and missed it.
Things didn't improve when I opened it. A bluetooth-
The connected smartphone app allows me to adjust the current intensity to one of the 13 settings with the names "relax", "Happy", "work" and "Awake ".
What is not listed is the burning sensation of pain that I cannot dial.
I tried it a few more times to get the result of the Sync promise and eventually I gave up.
Nearly half a year later, I received an invitation to attend thsync social events in the office of the T-station incubator company.
So far, there has been a lot of glowing comments.
I want to know what I missed.
When I expressed concerns to a marketing rep about my previous experience, she adjusted my triangle and set it to "surge", one of their most extreme energy atmospheres
I waited for the burn but did not come.
On the contrary, throughout the session, I felt a beating buzz gradually intensifying.
After 10 minutes-the default time setting for the surge-I took off the strap and went to make a piece.
I am not an introvert, but I am not a chatty person either.
Since then, however, I have become super, outgoing, confident and full of energy.
I seem to be peeping. I wasn’t alone.
The crowd at Thsync social is eager to share their experiences.
Some have explained that thsync is a substitute for caffeine.
Others want the soothing effect of having a glass of beer when cold beer is socially unacceptable.
Description includes concentration booster, hangover treatment, and exercise booster-a description thsync is a digital drug.
I still got home from the rough experience.
My brain is running and I can't wait to do it again.
The next day, I positioned the module the way it was displayed, and then clicked start.
I felt a familiar feeling, but not the beating hum.
On the contrary, the burning sensation of discomfort came back.
I tried to reduce the intensity and put a new note on it, but the pain is still there.
The support button at the bottom of the app screen connects me to Maya *, who guides me through video chat through the positioning process: "a little up. No, down. There.
But the feeling of burning has the upper hand.
Is my module lemon?
In an impressive customer support presentation, Maya suggested that I go to thsync's headquarters and in a suburb called Los Gatos she can diagnose the problem in person.
Thsync HQ has little resemblance to the technical warehouse cliché the night before.
I walked into a tasteful but humble office.
Maya talked about business directly.
She put the module on my head and click the Start button.
I felt another pain.
Maya was confused: I was "off the spec ".
Maybe my skin is too sensitive to thsync, she suggested.
Just then, her colleague approached us from the other side of the room to supplement his speculation.
"The atmosphere depends on your current environment," he said . " That means my previous strong energy growth could be a by-product.
The product of exciting interaction near me.
If this is not a textbook description of the placebo effect, I don't know what it is.
Maya interrupted my conversation with a replacement module.
The pulse of my new module is painless, but I haven't been able to replicate the punch of that fantasy yetdrunk state.
The best I can do is the strong espresso feel, which is nothing, but it doesn't change the rules of the game. These mind-
Changing wearable devices is undoubtedly becoming the mainstream.
Various reviews of the hottest technologies last year promoted the product along with Apple Watch and Oculus Rift;
Even Vanity Fair shows one of its favorite admirers.
But I am very confident that our future will not be surrounded by colleagues wearing white forehead triangles.
The impact of Thsync is not enough to produce cultural changes that creators dream.
It doesn't make you smarter, sharper, or happier.
It may give you a boost here and a break there.
It could be a person's noise canceling headphones or another person's Scotch whisky on the rock.
For me, this is coffee without tension.
What are those who insist on synchronizing power?
It's too early to judge how effective it is for your normal nerve stimulation dabbler.
But if thsync could replicate its findings, we might get a glimpse of the world outside the nervous system. hype bubble.