I’m part of a team at Sharper Sense, and we’re developing a non-invasive, wearable patch designed to instantly enhance your senses. Our device uses gentle electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve in the neck to optimize your brain for sensory perception, giving you sharper hearing, vision, and touch.
It’s designed as a disposable, wireless device you’d wear when you need a sensory boost. For example: going to a noisy restaurant with a friend and struggling to hear them over the background noise? Just place the patch on your neck and get an immediate hearing boost.
Our tech is backed by over 10 years of research in both rodents and humans at Columbia and Cornell University. You can check out all our peer-reviewed research here: Science — Sharper Sense.
We’re excited about creating tools that could help biohackers, performance enthusiasts, and anyone looking to push their sensory boundaries. While we’re making progress on our prototype, we’re eager to gather feedback from this knowledgeable community.
Would a device like this interest you? Are there specific sensory enhancements or use cases you’d love to see addressed? Are you overwhelmed by the sheer amount of vagus nerve stimulators on the market?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, or even skepticism. If you’re extra motivated, I’d be happy to have a quick 15-minute call—just shoot me a DM!
Thanks in advance, and I’m happy to answer any questions about the technology, science, or approach.
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Welcome; thank you for sharing!
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I’d give it a try. But I would wait for some published studies on its effects on humans. Rodent studies are good but medical science has shown that you need to test in people.
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I couldn’t because it’s incompatible with the implant I already have.
Medical devices like mine are extremely sensitive (they have to be), and any additional electrical current introduced to the body can interfere with the device’s function or possibly even do damage. No TENS units, no violet wands, nothing – certainly no tVNS.
Most of your target audience, statistically, won’t have pacemakers or neurostimulators. Frankly, I’m not sure how you could possibly make such a device compatible, so I wouldn’t expect it – but that’s my “no” and why.
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You’re right, human studies are critical. We’ve published one peer-reviewed pilot clinical study, and another study is now undergoing review. Both studies were in humans and found 10-30% improvements in visual acuity (based on tests you’d do at the optometrist office), speech recognition in noise (based on tests you’d do at an audiologist office), and the detection of brief sounds. Both studies are open access, so if you have the time please feel free to take a look!
As a scientist myself, it’s great to see the research being prioritized. But I’m curious, how important is peer-reviewed research versus actually trying out the tech and seeing the effect for yourself?
Studies:
Transcutaneous cervical vagus nerve stimulation improves sensory performance in humans: a randomized controlled crossover pilot study
Cervical transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation enhances speech recognition in noise: A crossover, placebo-controlled study
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You’re spot on. Having an implanted medical device will surely preclude you from using any form of non-invasive electrical stimulation. Thank you for the clear reasoning.
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This might be a hard pass from me due to the recent VNS popularity and it’s use cases are mostly epilepsy and depression and some hearing effects. Definitely not vision though and vision is what I would love to see hacked because my BF is blind. 