Cognitive Cloud
A wearable that shows your team how you’re thinking, as a colored cloud above your head.
A shared space where you can see how people think.
Cognitive Cloud is a wearable. An EEG cap reads your brain activity, and a small cloud above your head lights up in one of four colors. Put a team in one room and everyone’s state becomes visible at a glance.
You can’t see what your teammates are thinking.
In a team, messages and tasks are visible. Focus, overload, and confusion are not. I interviewed three people who work in fast-moving teams, and all of them had to guess.
“I think my colleague has already understood my design logic, but in reality, they are still processing it.”
Mia · Designer“After a long discussion, I’m not sure whether to go deeper or move on to making a decision.”
Clark · Project Manager“I wish the team could know that I’m in ‘deep thinking mode’ and not disturb me.”
Helen · EngineerOne simple signal: four colors, four states.
Instead of tracking behavior, the cloud shares only how ready you are right now. It’s ambient, so nobody has to stop and report it.
An OpenBCI EEG cap streams brain activity.
Python sorts the signal into one of four states.
Arduino drives LEDs inside a cotton cloud.
The same state goes to Unreal Engine over OSC.
A room that can see how the team is doing.
In the shared office, everyone’s cloud floats above them. The room can quiet interruptions when someone is deep in focus, and suggest rebalancing when load gets uneven.
Where this could go.
Swap the EEG cap and cotton cloud for AR glasses, so the cloud only appears for teammates who opt in.
After each meeting, a short report shows when focus dropped and where the group lost alignment.
Check the four states against more people and longer sessions, and decide who gets to see what.
Copyright © 2026 Anqi Wang