FOCI – Wearable tech that helps you focus (?)

Ever since I started tracking my sleep and exercise with my smartwatch, I’ve often wondered what the next level up would be for tech wearables.

“When can we get a wearable for our brain?” I asked my friend who shares both my 1) passion for tech and 2) lack of spending restraint for said tech.

“Like some kind of monitor for our brain’s performance that can help us improve efficiency?”

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Days later on facebook, I saw an ad for the ‘FOCI’: the ‘Wearable that Boosts your Focus’. A special ‘Student Offer Price‘ was touted in the ad.

I bit. What was this strange device, and did it work?

Their pitch began with a common problem: how, every day, we spend countless minutes distracted from the task at hand.

FOCI is presented a solution to this problem. The device and app track your focus level for tasks throughout the day, learn your patterns and provide ways to improve your four ‘focus skills’.

But how does the device actually measure focus?

The FOCI is clipped onto the waist, next to your abdomen. By tracking abdominal movements, it is able to measure your breathing: this data is fed to the AI, which then determines your mind state. Each of the mind states has a colour and updates in real time.

Created by Tinylogics team out of Cambridge, FOCI is actually their second crowd-funded project. Their first kickstarter was Memo Box, a pill organiser and reminder gadget that was a success story (even took home some awards for design).

Since it’s 2019 and kickstarter scams are a thing, already having a successful kickstarter under their belt was comforting.

While no guarantee, having one successful kickstarter is always better than none.

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I clicked through to the IndieGoGo page.

“Only 1 left,” the words called to me for the Student Offer.

“Login below or continue as guest? Or would you like to register for an IndieGoGo account?”

“Yes, I would love to fill in these fields and register a new IndieGogo account.”

“Too late. The student offer is no longer available.”

“…”

“…Are you willing to pay $10USD more for a Second Batch Pledge Option instead?”

Plus shipping, that ended up being over $130AUD (as free shipping applies to US/UK only).

I’ve since received the FOCI (about a month later), and will be posting my first impressions soon.