A sleep mask that tracks your eye movements to better understand sleep patterns and quality is certainly unusual, and the prototype device in our photos shows it looks pretty crazy too. That’s reason enough to talk about it, but the real reason Somalytics’ SomaSleep Sleep Mask is exciting is the amazing eye-tracking sensors hidden inside.
Digital Trends spoke with Somalytics CEO Barbara Barclay during CES 2023 about how the potential of these tiny sensors goes beyond being able to watch while you sleep.
Introducing SomaSleep Somalitics
SomaSleep is the first product to use Somalytics’ SomaCap, the name given to a miniature composite capacitive sensor that gives it the unique ability to track eye movements without the use of a camera. There are four SomaCap sensors that monitor each eye inside the mask, allowing it to track sleep stages in detail never seen before outside of a hospital sleep center.
Barbara Barclay, CEO of Somalytics Somalytics
“Essentially what is happening [inside the mask] the sensor has a small electric field, think of it as a small force field, and the eyeball disrupts the electric field,” explained Barclay. “It can detect open or closed eyes, which was never possible before. We use eyeball and eyelid movements to detect exactly where the eye is moving. From a wellness perspective, it gives you insight into what was really going on while you were sleeping.”
The mask being demonstrated at CES 2023 is a prototype, so not all features or design elements are final yet. The battery is expected to last eight hours, and due to the low power consumption of the SomaCap sensor, it will not need a large heat-producing battery. Data will be collected and presented in an app that is still in development, and Somalytics will release an SDK for developers to integrate the product into their own apps.
Somalis
Barclay explained why, initially, the SomaSleep mask won’t have additional sensors — what differentiates it from sleep-tracking devices like the Oura Ring or the Apple Watch:
“We will develop a portfolio of sleep products,” she continued. “After the sleep mask, we may have a mattress pad that you lie on to identify more aspects of your movement and breathing. I also think we’ll be able to pick up a heartbeat from it. But, you know, to be honest, it’s something that everybody already has. These sensors are capable of so many things.”
Capable of so much
The SomaSleep mask is an intriguing product, but Barclay’s words that the SomaCap is “capable of so many things,” show that it’s the sensors that make it really special. SomaCap is a composite capacitive sensor that is so sensitive that it can sense human presence at a distance of up to 200 mm, so small that it can measure only 1 mm, be as thin as a human hair and be embedded in paper. It has the potential to change much more than just sleep tracking. Barclay talked about what makes him unique:
Somalytics SomaCap sensors Somalytics
“You take a conductive substance, put it in paper, and now it’s a conductive structure because it has all the surface area to detect whatever you’re trying to detect, and then you package it in plastic so it’s waterproof. It consumes very little power, is very sensitive to liquid, and very sensitive to human tissue.”
Barclay went on to give me an everyday example of where a small sensor can be used to make a simple but hugely significant change:
“You go to the toilet at the airport and all those fancy touch-sensitive things don’t work. The toilet flushes when it shouldn’t, and the water doesn’t turn on when it should. These are all usually infrared sensors, which are probably the most commonly used in these environments. They are sensitive to dirt, they don’t like dark lighting, they don’t work well with dark skin and they work at a very limited distance.”
Somalis
[The SomaCap’s] unique properties allow it to see something far away from the faucet and is unaffected by dirt no matter how dirty it is,” continued Barclay. “It looks for human charge when you’re sitting on the toilet, not movement, so it waits until you stand up before flushing, because as soon as you stand up, the human charge disappears. Whether you’re turning on the lights, turning on an appliance, or measuring the amount of water in the glass you’re trying to fill from the fridge. This is a better way to do it that is cheaper, with low power consumption and a very small form factor.”
Out of touch and out of sleep
SomaCap’s capability clearly goes beyond observing eye movements in a sleep mask, but it also goes beyond replacing the often unreliable infrared and other touch-sensitive systems we often use today. Barclay talked about working with car manufacturers, such as Hyundai, to integrate sensors into cars, and he mentioned a pair of smart glasses that track eye movements with incredible precision without cameras.
SomaCap sensor array by Somalytics
“The speed of the fastest wearable eye-tracker is 200 Hz, and the processing time is typically around 26 milliseconds,” Barclay said of existing eye-tracking systems in virtual reality (VR) headsets. “It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s long enough for your brain to know what’s going on. We’ll have a delay of maybe three milliseconds and 1000 Hz. Not this year. We don’t need it to sleep. But ultimately for VR.”
Removing cameras from smart glasses and VR headsets reduces bulk, reduces power consumption, and negates privacy concerns. Couple all that with the speed and low latency that Barclay claims the SomaCap sensors are capable of, and many of the promises made to us about 5G suddenly start to look more plausible.
Just the beginning
Somalytics plans to release the SomaSleep mask later this year, when it will cost $200, but is open to working with other companies on it in the meantime. In addition, SomaCap does not keep to itself either.
“I prefer a partnership with someone who will help us develop [the SomaSleep] with their point of view and product in mind,” she said. “We have already identified a development partner for the eye tracking glasses that come after this and we hope to complete that in the next few months. I’ve mapped out the path for those first eye-tracking things, but we’re working with a lot of Fortune 500 companies that are under NDA and they’re doing research and development for different applications, and I think in 2023 at least a couple of them will pull the trigger .”
Not bad considering the tiny sensor that starts life inside the sleep mask.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn