Headset for epilepsy patients

How to increase the quality of life of epilepsy diagnosed patients?

Background

NeuroPro is a Swiss-based medtech, research and commercialization company focused on bringing cutting-edge technology to the healthcare community and innovating safe and low-cost solutions for applied EEG signal analysis. NeuroPro’s co-founders, Dr. Walid Juffali and Dr. Jamil El-Imad, developed an algorithm (WiNAM) to predict the onset of epileptic seizure based on abnormal brain activity.

When they considered the life situation of a person diagnosed with epilepsy and the clinical and research hardware available, they realized that existing devices and computing infrastructure for monitoring and analysis of brain signals were not simple, comfortable or affordable enough to assist patients in their daily lives and help restore their confidence.

With this vision in mind NeuroPro approached Creaholic to start a collaboration on the development of their mobile EEG monitoring device: NeuroTrail.

Challenge

Our goal was to develop a mobile EEG headset..

  • .. that does not require the use of conductive gel

  • .. which allows a faster and more comfortable setup

  • .. with a higher social acceptance for the wearer

The challenges lay in the ergonomic positioning of sensors and the adaption to a wide variety of head sizes, while creating a design that is empowering rather than stigmatizing for the wearer.

Intensive prototyping phase

In the development we worked in close collaboration with the Dutch technology firm IMEC who developed the electronics and had the opportunity to gain a lot of insights from the EPI clinic in Zürich. Over the course of more than two years and several development iterations we went from initial concept generation to the mechanical design and prototyping of components, to the integration of the electronics, assembly and pre-testing of devices to a final batch of 10 pre-series prototypes.

Throughout this time interviews with patients and insights from specialists supported us in the design process. The initial vision of a single all-in-one headset for epilepsy prediction was expanded to the design of a modular EEG acquisition platform that allows different configurations for different needs and applications.

Results

This led to the final result of the NeuroTrail headset, which is an ergonomically designed family of flexible wireless headsets for capture of EEG and motion (accelerometer and gyroscope) data.

The small form factor two-channel headband is suitable for wellness, lifestyle and entertainment uses. The eight-channel headset allows flexible positioning of up to eight gel-free electrodes and is designed for applications in healthcare research, cognitive assessment/training and neurofeedback. NeuroPro’s software applications allow instant visualization of the captured data and direct streaming to a cloud storage platform.

You can find more information about the final product on NeuroPro's website.

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