While trying to get a sense of this year’s LeWeb conference, the annual technology culture get-together in Paris, one thing was most striking to me: humans are out of this loop. For the most part, speakers focused on topics like machine-to-machine communication, artificial intelligence, or the now ubiquitous big data.

But while that realization seemed jarring at first, it’s also becoming increasingly clear how these tech-heavy topics will help humans — especially as we approach a world where practically everything is connected. (The so-called “Internet of Things.”)

Let’s take a look at the five most interesting topics at LeWeb:

1) PixPlit’s social photo creation app

As expected, plenty of Instagram-wannabe apps were trying to cut through the noise. But I thought PixPlit, an Tel Aviv, Israel-based app that lets you co-create photos with others, was the standout. It’s like a social jigsaw puzzle that offers you a new way to tell a story.

Simply take a picture with the PixPlit app, decide on the jigsaw canvas design, called the “collage”, apply your filters, and publish. Then the story takes flight — whoever wants to be part of the creation process can add their own piece. In the end, one picture (or part of it) becomes an element in a much bigger artistic creation, with friends or complete strangers.

The PixPlit co-creation process is interesting, but the real value is the way it lets you communicate via tastes and aesthetic notions with others.

2) Jib.li, say hello to “crowdshipping”

Another startup that boosts a new approach to communication is France-based Jib.li, which is like the Craigslist of your shopping abroad. Let’s say you live in Kentucky and your favorite cookies come from Paris. Jib.li makes it easier to source them by connecting travelers to people who need things shipped over to them urgently. The founders call this “crowdshipping.”

Joining the network is free of charge if you’re a traveler — simply state your itinerary and travel dates, as well as available volume in your suitcase. The person who’s asking you to bring an item has to agree to your terms, for example, whether it’s going to be a free or paid transaction, or one in exchange for a return service (or just a drink).

The openness of the exchange is a particularly interesting aspect of Jib.li: transacting takes place directly between the two parties, and the reward is paid upon delivery of the goods. The company may face a few legal hurdles with the current regulations for flight safety — you’re not supposed to carry something given to you by a stranger, especially if you don’t know the actual contents.

3) The man behind the Mars Curiosity Rover speaks out

Muse, NASA Mars Curiosity Rover chief software engineer Benjamin Cichy has his own vision about how social media fits into in the Internet of Things when it comes to space discovery. [Check out our in-depth interview with Cichy.]

For him, Curiosity Rover is the is “the further outpost of a connected device, and on the surface of another planet,” transmitting data to help humans understand their galactic surroundings better. He pointed out how the Internet of Things also includes social media, which has allowed global, real-time distribution of information. The whole world now has immediate access to NASA photos that were only visible to a happy few handful of space scientists before.

The irony, Cichy said, is that nowadays, scientists often end up seeing the images after the general public does, due to the viral nature of the information being broadcasted everywhere simultaneously.

4) Interaxon’s thought-controlled computing

Another mindblowing technology and approach to artificial intelligence comes from Interaxon. On-stage at LeWeb, Interaxon CEO Ariel Garten presented the Muse, which looks like a hair band, but has the ability to register your brainwaves and translate them into concrete signals as you type an email, for example.

“You can listen more carefully to what’s going on inside the brain, understand the relationship between brain activity and emotions and gain more control over your emotional state,” Garten explained.

5) Mobiquithings powers the “Internet of things”

The most striking startup at LeWeb wasn’t on stage, and its technology far from sexy (despite being being oh-so-powerful). Mobiquithings stayed under the radar. — a real tour de force given the power of their simple yet far-reaching technology.

The company uses SIM cards as data transmitters that can connect devices across carrier networks. Since it’s relying on existing infrastructure, the SIM cards can easily give almost any device an always-on Internet connection. For example, it could be placed on your water heater to alert you, or a repairman, as soon as it has a problem.

Mobiquithings notes “by 2020, there will be 50 billion things connected in the world.” That surely represents a massive pool of opportunities for this French startup.

Top photo: Jean Baptiste-Bellet for LeWeb; Cichy photo: LeWeb; Garten photo: Ciara Byrne; SIM photo: Luciano Belviso/Flickr;

“You can listen more carefully to what’s going on inside the brain, understand the relationship between brain activity and emotions and gain more control over your emotional state,” Garten explains.

An EEG measures electrical activity in the brain by detecting it via contacts on the scalp. As a medical instrument it has long been used to diagnose conditions like epilepsy and dementia as well as determining whether a patient in a coma is brain dead. Brain electrical activity is cyclic in nature, hence the name brainwave. Waves within particular ranges of frequencies, like “alpha” or “beta” waves, have various types of biological significance.

“Beta waves are associated with focus and alpha waves when you are relaxed and calm or quiet the mind,” says Garten. Beta waves are emitted when people are alert, agitated, tense or afraid and have frequencies ranging from 13 to 60 pulses per second in the Hertz scale. When relaxed, the frequency slows down to 7-13 pulses per second, so called “alpha waves”. We spend most of our time in beta mode, but the alpha rhythm is ideal for learning and performing complex tasks. Decreasing the brain rhythm using techniques like meditation and mindfulness also produces significant increases in the levels of beta-endorphins and dopamine.

“This is still first stage technology so what we can detect is still quite limited but the very fact that we can detect it is pretty damn exciting, ” enthuses Garten. “The predominant thing we can detect is alpha waves and beta waves.” The Muse headband measures full brainwave spectrum data from four points on the scalp: the temples and behind the ears. The integrated Brain Health system suggests and runs you through a series of mindfulness-based exercises such as deep breathing suitable for your current brainwave state. “

“Meditators can have a higher resting alpha state. When you are meditating there are a number of brain changes which go on and over time those become persistent so people are able to maintain this calm state of mind. “

At the LeWeb conference in Paris, Garten demonstrated the headband by adding contextual information based on brain activity to an email. “When someone is focussed the characters are small and tight and as they dream or relax or start to laugh the letters have florishes. When you are adding emphasis to something, you are smiling or using a lot of facial movement (which Muse can detect), we make the text bigger.”

Interaxon is certainly not the only player in this space. Neurosky makes an EEG chipset for integration into other devices as well as producing EEG devices which cost around $200. Emotiv has produced a more sophisticated 16-sensor headset which can detect some emotions and thought patterns but it’s a rather more steep $750. Both applications seem to emphasise applications where you directly control things with your brain such as a computer interface.

“We can do really basic controls – one dimension – based on alpha waves and beta waves. When you focus on something it will happen. If there’s a glowing ball in your game and you focus on it (to go into a beta state), it can get bigger, ” says Garten. However, Muse’s objective seems more inner exploration than external control.  As the Buddha said “It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you.”

Muse can be pre-ordered on crowd-sourcing site IndieGogo where the project has already raised $253,293.

Like nerve endings which translate senses into electrical impulses in your nervous system, sensors can translate the physical world into the digital. In the process, they can help humans become more aware of ourselves.

The “quantified self” is an increasingly popular term. It means using algorithms to correlate all these sensor data, and provide valuable information for better living. In an earlier article “Internet of Things: Not Just a Fund Raising Concept Now,” we talked about sensor technology as one of the fundamental drivers for the development of the “internet of things.” Key factors for sensor technology adoption depend on the maturity of the technology, cost, and most importantly, experience. Innovative application of existing sensors is also an important factor in the scaling of the industry.

In this article, we will introduce a few interesting life science sensor technologies and their “quantified self” applications. Some of them are still in research labs, while others are ready to go for the market.

The science of breathing

However, we are most excited about newer technologies that go beyond “what we are doing” and dive deeper into how we relate to the world.  The Calming Technology Lab at Stanford University was founded on a simple premise: to reduce the stress in our always-connected world.  They asked: “How can we use new technologies such as the quantified self to bring more ‘calm’ into the world?”

Led by Neema Moraveji, their breakthrough project involves using breathing sensors to obtain a user’s breathing pattern and extract its relationship with stress levels. Initial papers published by the lab have used breathing-based feedback to increase productivity and reduce stress of office workers.  They believe this model can be extended, leading to a systematic reduction in stress and improved health. Moreover, ancient art forms focused around meditation, such as Taiqi, martial arts and Yoga, may get scientific explanations for their results.

Sweat sensors for traditional Chinese medicine

Chinese medicine has been a mysterious system of knowledge for thousands of years. No one can really explain clearly what it is, but the treatments do deliver results. We don’t want to dig into its theory bases here, however, the diagnosis methods used to tell a patient’s treatment status are interesting. Sweat is one of them. After a patient has taken medication, the amount and timing of her sweat are valuable information for doctors to tell if the medication has the expected impact. However, such readings have depended on the intuition of the doctor, limiting the impact to those who can access an increasingly small number of skilled practitioners.

Engineers at GuoHao, a Beijing-based sensor technology company, have developed sensors to monitor sweat for medication analysis. Doctors can, for example, remotely access a patient’s account, look at his sweat records, and decide the subsequent treatment. Although this technology faces obstacles in user education for adoption, it holds the potential of bringing traditional medicine to a broader audience with greater results.

“Tattoo” for non-piercing glucose testing

People with type I diabetes must prick their fingers several times a day to test their blood sugar level. Though the pain is minor, the chore interferes with daily life. Researchers in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering have been working on a new type of sensor to detect glucose levels without the need of finger pricks. The sensing system consists of a “tattoo” of nanoparticles designed to detect glucose, injected below the skin. A device similar to a wristwatch would be worn over the tattoo, displaying the patient’s glucose levels. The “tattoo” would last for a specified length of time, probably six months, before needing to be refreshed.

The sensor is based on carbon nanotubes wrapped in a polymer that is sensitive to glucose concentrations. When this sensor encounters glucose, the nanotubes fluoresce, which can be detected by shining near-infrared light on them. Although this technology is still years away from human trials, it may soon start trials in animals. If this technology appears in real products, people will be better able to prevent diabetes caused by irregular daily activities such as taking meals, drinks, and medications, through instant glucose level notifications.

Brainwave monitoring and meditation lights

What are you thinking? Are you nervous? Modern technologies can help you easily become a “mind-reader,” and brainwave technology is one of them. NeuroSky, a U.S.-based EEG chipset company, has been focusing on spreading brainwave sensors to the mass market. The company has applied brainwave technology into various industries, such as sports training, education, and entertainment. In recent activities, they translated brainwaves to a hardware LED light. Users can see their brainwave status through the colors of the light. For example, your state of mind will be indicated as “Peace & Soothing” when your brainwave light is blue. Yoga exercisers can use it as a tool to indicate meditation status. “You can easily control your stress by adjusting your breaths,” says Priti, a 20-year yoga practitioner and teacher. “I am happy to see my light keep blue, this can certainly help bring meditation to a scientific level.”

Other sensors for increasing self-awareness

We see many exciting sensor technologies to improve life science intelligence. Some of them help explore the mysteries of the human body, some fundamentally change the way people obtain their own information, while others apply commonly-used sensors to innovative usage. For example, Brainpage has been working on a PC/Mac-based application to help professionals prevent repetitive stress injuries (RSI). The Anti-RSI program includes a client software and graphing tools. Through analysis of users’ keyboard and mouse usage, the client application will remind people to take breaks when work intensity could cause RSI. The program also allow users to understand their performance through Web graphs, for example, help users find out their professional skill level comparing to other people.

We believe that in the near future, innovative sensor technologies can greatly help humans understand more about ourselves. We hope to see more of such these intriguing projects happening, and more importantly, put to practical use for better living.

This article originally appeared on TechNode, a VentureBeat editorial partner based in China. It was written by TechNode Guest Editor Dr. Wenzhe Zhou, co-founder of Brainpage, which is a big data processing and analysis startup, focused on creating a cloud-based engine for time series data and sensors. The company’s Hadoop-based service provides developers and industry partners easy-to-use, scalable and flexible database and analysis solutions.

Top photo: Sergio Alvarez/Flickr