When I received five e-mails to check out the MC Square—a hand held device that's said to relieve stress, improve memory, and enhance concentration through light and sound—I knew I couldn't pass the opportunity up. (My memory is horrible!) Plus, 1.5 million units have already been sold in Korea, so it's gotta be legit, right? And for the first time starting today, it's available in the U.S.
Dragging PCMag.com assistant editor Corinne Iozzio with me to the W Hotel in Times Square, we were presented with a device that looked like a sleek MP3 player connected to earbuds and goggles.
Developed by Daeyang E&C, the MC Square features six program modes with natural sounds like rain drops to soothe and relax your mind. With everyone in the stuffy room watching us, we both put the ear buds and goggles on. We turned on the player and began to see red lights flashing at our eyes.
We were told to close our eyes and listen to the sounds of the ocean in the background. The combination of light and sound, an audio-visual stimulation (AVS), is known to cause "significant changes in EEG patterns and cerebral synchronization." But why the flashing red LEDs? They're "bright, inexpensive, and blood vessels in the eyelids pass red/orange light most efficiently."
Korean students found that after regularly using the MC Square for 15 minutes a day it improved their study skills. One such student said that he was able to memorize vocabulary words in just 10 minutes after using the device, as opposed to more than half an hour. That's a significant difference!
The MC Square isn't just a stress-reducing device. It's also an MP3 player with 512MB of on board flash memory and a mini SD card, as well as a digital voice recorder (30-hour capacity) and image and text viewer with a color OLED screen. The player is very portable, too, at just 0.6-inches thick.
We're expecting to get a unit in-house, because we just have to see for ourselves if this wacky device works.
To purchase the MC Square with earbuds and goggles, it sells for $435.89 at Amazon.com.
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