Brain monitoring tech makes online shopping more intuitive

Thursday, October 19, 2017 - 12:03 by Simon Crisp

A new system developed by eBay and MyndPlay is set to change the way that people carry out safe shopping online by analysing brain activity and working out what consumers really want to buy based on this information.

The Daily Mail reports that this project is partly intended to solve the problem that many shoppers face when browsing the internet for something to buy, which is that the sheer amount of choice can be overwhelming.

Rather than being paralysed by indecision, the headsets that eBay has developed allow responses to be recorded and assessed in real time. So if there are several different options available, the system can work out which particular product is really the one which will make a given consumer the happiest.

This tech was put to the test last week at a small scale event in London where participants were hooked up to the headband and allowed to browse a range of items. At the end of the process they were presented with the results which proved definitively which of the products they saw generated the most positive response in their brains.

One of the other interesting things revealed by this system is that responses to products differ depending on how they are displayed on the page and what other items are visible at the same time. People are more likely to respond positively to an item when viewed in isolation than when it is showcased alongside other options.

This suggests that being able to compare products directly alongside one another will give consumers a better idea of what they actually want to buy via safe shopping online.

Whether this technology will ever be rolled out on a large scale or not remains to be seen, but it still provides an intriguing insight into the way people shop online.