Muse frontman Bellamy invests in Brit-founded mindreading start-up MindPortal

While we’ve become used to sci-fi technology turning into real-world technology over the years, the smartphone the most obvious example, it is generally presumed some gadgets are a little too sci-fi for that to be a realistic prospect in our lifetimes. But the rapid advancements in technology means that for some of the more outlandish tech of the big and small screen, we might have to rethink just how impossible it becoming a reality really is.

Mindreading tech is a prime example. Elon Musk’s Neuralink has made some astonishing progress in recent times and there are a host of exciting start-ups in the neuroscience field also working on various kinds of technology able to interpret our thoughts by deciphering brain activity.

One is MindPortal, a mindreading tech start-up founded by 31-year-old Ekram Alam, and 27-year-old Jack Barber. The pair, British former medical students, want to “augment the human mind”. And a number of Silicon Valley venture funds have put up the cash to help them reach their goal. And they’ve been joined by a less obvious investor in the form of Muse singer Matt Bellamy.

The rock musician joined more established tech investors like Fitbit co-founder James Park, former Facebook executive Julie Zhou, and the venture capital firms Learn Capital and Kleiner Perkins, in a $5 million investment round recently closed by MindPortal. The 2019-founded start-up is designing a device it hopes will allow people to control technology from entertainment systems, to robots, drones, and VR character with only their thoughts.

Eventually, co-founders Alam and Baber, who met while both medical students at University College London, believe the device will also have applications in mental health, and “mind augmentation” like improving memory and telepathic communication.

The company, which has a presence in both London and San Francisco, uses a different kind of technology to the kind of electrode sensors used by larger rivals like Neuralink. MindPortal instead measures brainwaves using rays of light.

The start-up says its technology can measure and interpret brainwaves up to 100 times more accurately than the EEG devices most commonly used in mindreading tech. EEG headsets rely on electrodes to detect brain activity, which is also far more invasive as accurate readings require them to be placed under the skull, with direct brain contact.

Co-founder Alam explains:

“What we are using is light — you pass light through the hair and skull at a frequency where it can penetrate skull tissue and go into the brain”.

When the light beams used by MindPortal hit brain tissue, they scatter differently if the tissue is currently active or inactive. Detectors in the headset then measure the scatter effect and mathematic models record the activity. Once a big enough database is built up, the company believes it can build a model that will translate the meaning of brain activity into specific thoughts.

Alam continues:

“What we are doing in the long run is to create a device that you can wear, like a headband, with no need for surgery, that is able to understand what you are thinking by reading your brain activity. It then makes sense of what you are thinking using artificial intelligence, before doing something useful for you”.

“That could be controlling a virtual reality, moving a robot, typing, or communicating between minds. Your mind will become the control between yourself and technology.”

Explaining his motivation for investing in the innovative young company, Muse frontman Bellamy, who was introduced to MindPortal during a demo day hosted by “start-up school”  Y Combinator, said:

“If I could change songs or radio stations in my car without having to take my eyes off the road and without having to argue with an AI who cannot understand my accent, the world would be a safer place.”

MindPortal expects to launch its first device, which will cost between an estimated $300 and $600, by the end of 2023.