Founded in 2018, NaoX Technologies has designed a miniaturized electroencephalograph in a pair of headphones to make this complex examination accessible to as many people as possible. A promising innovation that will improve the monitoring and diagnosis of neurological disorders, in particular epilepsy.
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[EN VIDÉO] The epilepsy gene This video explains the onset of epilepsy, its consequences in the brain and how the switch gene works. © Inserm
In France, 600,000 people suffer fromepilepsy, nearly half of whom are under the age of 20. Internationally, there are 60 million patients (source Inserm). If we broaden the prism, the number of people with neurological disorders is estimated at one billion (source federation for brain research) worldwide. For all these patients, theelectroencephalogram (or EEG) is the essential basic examination for monitoring pathologies. Gold, ” technologyelectroencephalogram had changed little for a century “says Hugo Dinh, co-founder of Naox Technologies.
A graduate of the École Polytechnique and the University of Berkeley, this young entrepreneur embarked on a most ambitious adventure in 2018: designing a electroencephalograph miniaturized and simple enough to be used daily by patients. Guided by the success of wireless headphones, he sensed the potential of this technology to revolutionize theEEG.
Miniaturization and patented algorithms
Associated to Michel Le Van Quyen, research director at Inserm specializing in the predictive analysis of EEG signals, Hugo Dinh set out to integrate electroencephalogram technology into a pair of headphones and to develop analysis algorithms that help doctors interpret the data. ” Our solution will make it possible to collect data in real life conditions, to dissociate what is part of the patient’s “normal” activity from what isanomaly linked to a disease “says Hugo Dinh.
“ Brain activity measurements, and in particular EEG, are performed under laboratory conditions, in a hospital or clinic “, he explains to us. ” The problem with this approach is that it only delivers photos, snapshots, of a patient’s brain state. However, the brain is an ever-evolving body. It is therefore complicated to determine anomalies from photos. »
Our interlocutor points out that doctors and neuroscientists have been aware of this shortcoming for a long time. ” If we take the case of epilepsy, the symptoms occur sporadically, often very rarely. As a result, the probability that a crisis occurs when the person is in the hospital to perform an EEG is very low. It is therefore very important to be able to follow the patient in a daily context in order to detect anomalies. It is this limit that currently means that there are very few known biomarkers in neurological diseases. “, he continues.
As accurate as a standard EEG
NaoX (a word that means ” brain in Vietnamese, in reference to the origins of the two co-founders) patented its technology of sensors Miniaturized EEGs that continuously record the electrical activity of the brain. ” The EEG signal has a potential difference which is of the order of ten microvolts. Headphones are a very interesting technical solution because the ear canal acts as a “clamp” that keeps the electrodes well in place. We have a stable and clean signal. »
The tips in silicone NaoX earphones are coated with a conductive substance that ensures efficient signal pick-up. The very low amplitude of the EEG signal induces a high percentage of artifacts which destroy the signal. It can be parasites such as a movement head or jaw. According to Hugo Dinh, the percentage of “clean” signal captured by his device of around 20% is equivalent to that of electroencephalographs used in hospitals. He believes that gradually improving his processing algorithms will help increase this percentage.
Specifically, the use of headphones EEG of NaoX is very easy. According to his pathology and the protocol follow-up prepared by his doctor, the person gate the sensors while going about his business. She can listen to music, watch a movie or even play a video game. The information is transmitted to theapplication mobile on their smartphone and then processed by the EEG signal analysis algorithms run on the NaoX servers. The algorithms were trained using past data from epileptic patients, Hugo Dinh told us. The result of the examination is then communicated to the practitioner via a secure connection or during a face-to-face meeting.
Coverage by Social Security and mutual insurance companies
Currently, NaoX is in the certification phase of its EEG headphones which have already been tested by the Inserm Biomedical Imaging Laboratory. The French Foundation for Research on Epilepsy is also a stakeholder and a clinical study with 50 patients is planned by the end of the year. The start-up hopes to be able to market its “N” Buds at the end of 2023 and aims for fee-for-service coverage by Social Security and complementary health insurance. The manufacture of the headphones as well as the location of the servers that host the data will be done in France. The leader of NaoX does not yet advance a selling price but he mentions a price in the range of high-end wireless headphones such as AirPods Pro around 250 euros. In addition, the company has just raised 4.3 million euros from an array of investors: Kurma Partners, the Autonomous Patient Fund of Bpifrance, BNP Paribas Development and Majycc. e-Health.
Initially, NaoX targets people withepilepsy. But in the longer term, Hugo Dinh revealed to us that he is betting on a diffusion potentially very wide from his EEG headphones. ” Thanks to the data collected, we will then be able to know what a healthy person is and thus improve our algorithms to make them more powerful in the detection of diseases and even their prevention. And why not imagine that these NaoX headphones could become a tool to support athletes in their training and recovery phases, or even to help everyone better manage their stress ? To be continued…
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