Apple has bought Sonera, a California company that makes non-invasive sensors that can measure neural signals from the brain, with health benefits ranging from muscle monitoring to active thought control of devices.
It's already been proven possible to control an Apple Vision Pro by thought, but it involved an implant in a user's head. Now Apple has acquired Sonera, whose technology detects magnetic muscle activity.
In 2020, co-founder Nishita Deka said that her firm aimed to make brain imaging portable and affordable. "We are trying to detect brain activity using cheaper, faster methods that are still high-performance," she said.
"That's our north star," she continued. "We do a kind of functional imaging, a direct imaging of activities in the brain."
Magnetic sensors are said to be better than electrical ones, since electrical signals are dampened by the skull. So this could mean a much improved thought control, without users having to have implants.
Deka and co-founder Dominic Labanowski's company was begun in 2018 while they were students at UC Berkeley. Originally known as Sonera Magnetics, the company came out of stealth financing in 2023 with $11 million.
What Apple could use this for
Sonera's first product was a S1 chip for muscle sensing. As well as registering brain magnetic activity, the company says the S1 can control prosthetics, and may be used in consumer wearables.
That last point may mean that Apple is actually looking to use the technology for future Apple Watch health features. It could be used for continuous monitoring of certain neuromuscular conditions, for example.
According to the European Union's database of acquisitions likely to be significant in its region, Apple acquired Sonera in May 2026. There has been no announcement, but Sonera's website has now been taken down.
