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 Most surprising, concluded market-research firm SharpBrains, is
that patents have been awarded to inventors well beyond those at
medical companies. The leader in neurotechnology patents, according
to the report, is consumer-research behemoth Nielsen.
That expansion into non-medical uses, said SharpBrains Chief
Executive Alvaro Fernandez, who presented the results at the
NeuroGaming conference in San Francisco, shows we are at the dawn of
"the pervasive neurotechnology age," in which everyday technologies
will be connected to brains.
"Neurotech has gone well beyond medicine, with non-medical
corporations, often under the radar, developing neurotechnologies to
enhance work and life," he said.
Patents for neurotechnology bumped along at 300 to 400 a year in the
2000s, then soared to 800 in 2010 and 1,600 last year, SharpBrains
reported.
 Those awarded to medical device company Medtronic PLC, for instance,
include ways to use electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the
severity of a brain lesion. Several held by medical technology
company St. Jude Medical Inc. describe ways to change brain activity
to, say, improve vision.
But it is the explosion in non-medical uses, such as controlling
video games with brain waves, that is driving neurotechnology.
SharpBrains measured "intellectual property (IP) strength" by number
of neurotechnology patents as well as patent quality, reflected in
how many other patents reference them, for instance.
By that measure, Nielsen leads the pack, with patents describing
ways to detect brain activity with EEG and translate it into what
someone truly thinks about, say, a new product, advertising, or
packaging.
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Microsoft Corp. holds patents that assess mental states, with the
goal of determining the most effective way to present information.
If software knows a user's attention is wandering, it could hold
back complicated material.
Another Microsoft patent describes a neuro-system that claims to
discern whether a computer user is amenable to receiving
advertisements.
Such patents reflect the enthusiasm for neuro-monitoring, something
many scientists say has not been shown to be more effective than,
say, asking people what they think about a product.
On a lighter note, an EEG patent awarded to San Jose-based
biosensors company NeuroSky describes a design for a headset that
could deliver music based on a user's brainwaves, perhaps a ballad
when the listener is feeling contemplative.
(Reporting by Sharon Begley; editing by Andrew Hay)
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