In December. 15, 2022, CES 2023 Innovation Awards honoree and nanotechnology pioneer Somalytics Inc. announced it will be unveiling its new SomaSleep sleep mask at CES Unveiled which occurred on January 3, and showcasing it during the CES 2023 which happened from Jan. 5-8, Las Vegas.
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The REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep plays an important role in learning, memory, and brain development. Currently, lab-based tests are required to directly gauge how much REM sleep a person is getting. The SomaSleep mask, however, is claimed to let users do so at home.
SomaSleep is a first-of-its-kind sleep mask that uses eye tracking to unmask the wellness challenges preventing better sleep by collecting data never before possible through an in-home device.
The revolutionary sleep mask can track eye movement, including Rapid Eye Movements, to help consumers better understand sleep stages, quality, and disruptions that are key to wellness insights and improving sleep.
So in this article, SomaSleep is all we will be talking about. Keep reading to know all there is to know on SomaSleep.
About Somalytics
Somalytics is bringing better sense to the digital world. The nanotechnology startup is commercializing a patent-pending CPC capacitive sensor, which is a new technology developed by University of Washington researchers in collaboration with CoMotion.
Somalytics’ eye, gesture, touch, and fluid monitoring sensors are miniature and highly sensitive to the human body. They are designed to improve the human experience through innovations in eye tracking, consumer electronics, AR/VR, IoT, health and wellness, and transportation.
What is SomaSleep all About?
Eye movements occur during every sleep stage. Regular eye movements and REM can be disrupted by stress, injury, disease, medications, and alcohol. For example, people with concussions often suffer from increased sleep disruptions and daytime fatigue.
Now, this is where SomaSleep comes in. SomaSleep eye-tracking sleep mask is a wearable sleep tracker but it isn’t like other health trackers that you wear on your finger or wrist. SomaSleep can track and classify eye movements, including REM, for closed or open eyes during sleep or while awake.
This allows users while at home to see inside their sleep patterns in ways that have not previously been possible to help explain fatigue that occurs even though a person theoretically slept and inform doctors when there are sleep pattern changes.
How Does the SomaSleep Mask Work?
In traditional laboratory sleep tests, a technique known as electrooculography is used to determine how much time a patient spends in REM sleep. The process involves adhering pairs of electrodes to the patient’s skin, above and below one eye, and to either side of the other eye.
As each eye moves up and down or from side to side, its cornea (front of eye) and retina (rear) correspondingly move closer to or farther away from each electrode. Because the electrical fields of the cornea and retina differ from one another, the electrodes can determine which way the eye is facing relative to them, by picking up on changes in the detected electrical signals.
SomaSleep likewise tracks eye movements while its user sleeps, but it does so via integrated capacitive sensors made of a proprietary carbon-nanotube “paper” composite material called SomaCap – the name given to the minuscule composite capacitive sensor that gives it the unique ability to track eye movement without the use of a camera.
A linked group of four of these SomaCap sensors is located below the foam padding in one of the mask’s two eyecups. As the foam is pressed up to the eye when the mask is worn, the sensors detect electrical signals above, below, and to either side of that eye.
The eye movement data that the sensors record throughout the night is relayed to a paired smartphone, tablet, or compatible fitness-tracking device, which provides the user with an onscreen sleep assessment when they get up. One charge of the mask’s battery should be good for at least eight hours of use.
Using the small capacitive sensors inside the lightweight sleep mask, SomaSleep tracks your eye movements (including REM or rapid eye movements) and delivers data on your sleeping patterns and general sleep quality. These insights can help you detect possible sleep disruptions and promote a greater awareness of your sleep quality, which plays an important role in mental and physical health.
Somalytics developed what it calls SomaCap, carbon-nanotube paper composite capacitive sensors that are highly sensitive, miniature, and “paper-thin,” the company described.
When incorporated into the design of a lightweight, wearable sleep mask, the sensors monitor eye movement during sleep or wake periods, including rapid eye movement, allowing it to track sleep stages in detail never before found outside a hospital sleep center.
Previously, this feat could only be accomplished during a visit to a sleep center. With the introduction of SomaSleep, people will be able to access this information from the palm of their hands and in the comfort of their own homes.
Sleep insights are delivered through the SomaSleep mobile app and are easily shareable with your doctor. The battery that powers the SomaSleep mask is also very small in scale. It runs for eight hours, but you don’t have to worry about overheating while you’re asleep.
In addition to eye tracking, Somalytics plans to use its sensors for different applications such as HMI (human-machine interaction) technology, wearables, and industrial safety.
SomaCap sensors within SomaSleep – The Main Feature of the SomaSleep Mask
SomaSleep uses Somalytic’s award-winning SomaCap carbon-nanotube paper composite (CPC™) capacitive sensors to track eye movement. As the world’s smallest nano-based capacitive sensor, SomaCap is establishing an entirely new category of sensor technology.
Miniature and highly sensitive to the human body, they can also be used for proximity sensing, gesture control, touch, and fluid monitoring. SomaCap sensors are designed to improve the human experience through innovations in consumer electronics, AR/VR, the Internet of Things, health and wellness, and transportation.
Somalytics is dramatically advancing the human experience with technology because its groundbreaking sensors are delivering greater sensitivity for devices in a smaller size, requiring less power to operate, and at a dramatically lower cost to manufacture than other available sensor technologies.
The Consumer Technology Association has recognized Somalytics SomaCap as a 2023 CES Innovation Award honoree in the Embedded Technology category.
“Sleep problems affect the lives of billions of people and understanding the quality of sleep is at the heart of the solution,” said Barbara Barclay, CEO of Somalytics. “REM is critical for learning and memory. Things such as snoring, back and leg problems, medication, antidepressants, concussions, stroke and other neurologic illnesses can disrupt sleep and in particular, REM.”
“Until now the only option to track REM was through sleep centers, where data is typically manually interpreted. With SomaSleep, we are enabling consumers to track all stages of sleep including REM in the comfort and privacy of their own homes through a lightweight, easy to use sleep mask. This is a transformational moment for in-home wellness and our team is thrilled to have a role in bringing to market such an important product.”
Other Features of the SomaSleep Mask
- Eight-hour battery life and health data collection: The SomaSleep mask will operate via battery for eight hours, collecting unprecedented health data.
- Low power operation and comfortability: Due to the low power it requires to operate, the mask also stays cool.
- Connection of data with popular fitness apps with access to the SomaSleep App: Data can be integrated via an SDK with top consumer fitness trackers or will be available through the SomaSleep mobile app.
Somalytics History
Founded in 2021 as a spinoff of CoMotion, the University of Washington’s collaborative innovation hub, Somalytics is funded by hard science investment firm IP Group Inc. with support from WRF Capital
In August, Somalytics closed a seed funding round of $1.9 million to launch mass production of its award-winning new sensors and develop concepts for consumer tech product development.
By the end of 2023, Somalytics expects to be mass-producing its unique sensors from its new headquarters and manufacturing facility in Redmond, Washington, which it moved into this summer.
What Somalytics CEO – Barbara Barclay said About the SomaSleep Mask
“Essentially what happens [inside the mask] is the sensor has a little electrical field, think of it like a little force field, and an eyeball disrupts the electrical field,” Barbara Barclay, Somalytics CEO explained.
“It can detect eyes open or closed, and that’s never been possible before. We are using the movement of the eyeball and the eyelid to detect precisely where the eye is moving. From a wellness perspective, it gives you insight into what really went on while you were asleep.”
Barclay explained why, initially, the SomaSleep mask won’t have additional sensors — making it unlike sleep tracking devices like the Oura Ring or the Apple Watch:
“We’ll be developing a portfolio of sleep products,” she continued. “After the sleep mask, we may have a mattress pad you lay on to identify multiple aspects of your movement and your respiration. I also think we will be able to capture heart rate from that. But, you know, to be honest, that’s something everybody already has. These sensors are capable of so many things.”
How Much is the SomaSleep Mask and Where Can You Get It?
SomaSleep is available for consumer purchase for $200 at the Somalytics official website.
The SomaSleep Mask is Capable of a Lot of Things
The SomaSleep mask is an intriguing product, but Barclay’s words that the SomaCap was, “capable of so many things,” showed that it was the sensors that made it special.
The SomaCap is a composite capacitive sensor that’s so sensitive it can understand human presence as close as 200mm, so small it can measure just 1mm, be as thin as a human hair, and be infused into paper. It has the potential to change a lot more than just sleep tracking. Barclay talked about what makes it unique:
“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 up in plastic so that it’s waterproof. It consumes very little power, it’s highly sensitive to liquid, and it’s highly sensitive to human tissue.”
Barclay went on to give me an everyday example of where the small sensor could be used to make a simple, but hugely meaningful change:
“You go to the bathroom at the airport, and all the fancy touch-sensitive stuff doesn’t work. The toilet flushes when it shouldn’t, and the water doesn’t turn on when supposed to. All of those are typically infrared sensors, which are probably the most common thing used in these environments. They’re 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.”
“[The SomaCap’s] unique properties enable it to see something that’s far away from the faucet, and is not affected by dirt no matter how dirty it gets,” Barclay continued. “It looks for the human charge when you’re sitting on the toilet, not motion, so it waits until you get up before flushing, because the minute you get up, the human charge disappears”.
“Whether you’re turning on lights, turning an appliance on, or measuring the amount of water in a glass you’re trying to fill from your refrigerator. This is a better way to do it that’s less expensive, with low power consumption, and a very small form factor.”
You can watch the video below to learn more about the SomaSleep mask:
Is this the sleep mask of the future? - Somalytics Soma Sleep Mask
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Beyond Touch and Sleep
The SomaCap’s ability goes way beyond watching for eye movement in a sleep mask, but it also goes beyond replacing the often unreliable infrared and other touch-sensitive systems we commonly use today.
Barclay talked about working with car makers, such as Hyundai, on integrating the sensors into cars, and also mentioned a pair of smart glasses that track eye movement with incredible precision without cameras.
“The speed of the fastest wearable eye tracker is 200Hz, and the processing time is usually about 26 milliseconds,” Barclay said about existing eye-tracking systems in virtual reality (VR) headsets. “It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s long enough for your brain to know what’s going on. We’ll have maybe a three-millisecond delay and 1,000hz. Not this year. We don’t need it for sleep. But ultimately for VR.”
Removing cameras from smart glasses and VR headsets reduces bulk, lowers power consumption, and negates privacy concerns. Pair all this with the speed and low latency Barclay claims the SomaCap sensors are capable of, and a lot of the promise we’ve been told about 5G suddenly starts to look much more likely.
Only the Beginning
Somalytics had the SomaSleep mask in 2023, and it cost $200. They are open to working with other companies on it in the meantime. Plus, it isn’t keeping the SomaCap to itself, either.
“My preference is to partner with somebody who will help us develop [the SomaSleep] with their point of view and the product in mind,” she said.
“We’ve already identified a development partner for the eye tracking glasses which are coming after this, and we hope to have that finalized within the next few months. I have the path planned out for those first things related to eye tracking, but we’ve been working with quite a number 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 at all from a tiny sensor that’s living inside a sleep mask. Not bad at all. Kudos to Somalytics. They really outdid themselves this time.
