Mui Board mmWave Sleep Tracking and Gesture Control [2025]

The Mui Board Gets Smarter: mm Wave Sleep Tracking and Gesture Control Explained

Your bedroom shouldn't feel like a tech showroom. That's the philosophy behind the Mui Board, a smart home controller that looks more like a piece of modern art than a device you'd use to adjust your lighting. But now it's about to get genuinely useful for one of the most important activities you do all day: sleeping.

The company just announced that the Mui Board Gen 2 will support millimeter-wave sleep tracking and gesture-based control through add-on sensors. This isn't just another fitness tracker feature tacked onto existing hardware. It's a meaningful expansion that transforms how you interact with your bedroom environment without cluttering it with wearables.

I'll be honest—when I first heard about this, I was skeptical. We've seen plenty of sleep tracking gimmicks. Most of them end up being either inaccurate or so obsession-inducing that they actually destroy your sleep. But the way Mui is approaching this is different. Instead of bombarding you with metrics and sleep scores, the technology quietly adjusts your environment and guides you toward better rest.

Here's what's happening with the Mui Board's new capabilities, why the technology actually matters, and what changes when your smart home finally understands how you sleep.

TL; DR

• mm Wave technology detects sleep patterns: Uses radar to track posture and breathing without wearables, achieving accuracy comparable to EEG monitoring
• No smartwatch required: The system works through add-on sensors, eliminating the need to wear sleep trackers to bed
• Gesture control from across the room: Wave your hand to control lighting, alarms, and other connected devices without touching anything
• Privacy-focused design: Radar-based tracking doesn't use cameras, maintaining bedroom privacy
• Rolling out later in 2025: Exact timeline unknown, but availability expected by year-end
• Built-in sensors coming: Mui showed a modified board with integrated mm Wave sensors at CES, suggesting future models won't need add-ons

The external sensor is expected to release by Q3 2026, while the built-in mmWave version may not be available until early 2027. Estimated data based on development and manufacturing timelines.

What Is Millimeter-Wave Technology Anyway?

Let's start with the basics, because understanding mm Wave is essential to understanding why this sleep tracking approach is fundamentally different from everything else on the market.

Millimeter-wave radar operates at frequencies between 30 and 300 GHz. The wavelengths are measured in millimeters, hence the name. Unlike microwave ovens or cellular frequencies, mm Wave can penetrate certain materials and bounce off human bodies with incredible precision. The reflected signals reveal detailed information about movement, breathing patterns, and even emotional state based on heart rate variability.

The technology has been around for decades in military and aerospace applications. Radar systems use it to detect aircraft and missiles from hundreds of miles away. But miniaturizing the technology for consumer applications is relatively new. In the past five years, we've seen mm Wave show up in smartphones for gesture recognition, in cars for collision avoidance, and increasingly in health monitoring devices.

What makes mm Wave different from other sleep tracking approaches? Let's compare:

Wearable trackers (smartwatches, rings) use accelerometers and heart rate sensors. They're accurate for gross movement detection but struggle with subtle breathing changes. Plus, they require you to wear something to bed, which disrupts sleep for a lot of people.

Under-mattress sensors use pressure-sensitive arrays. They work reasonably well but create a maintenance headache and can be uncomfortable if the sensor shifts under the mattress.

Camera-based systems achieve high accuracy but sacrifice privacy completely. Most people don't want cameras in their bedroom.

EEG headbands are the gold standard for sleep stage detection but are expensive, uncomfortable, and clearly overkill for home use.

mm Wave sits in an interesting middle ground. The radar can penetrate most materials, meaning it works through blankets and pillows. It's completely non-contact, so privacy isn't compromised. The spatial resolution is high enough to detect breathing patterns and distinguish between different sleep stages. And the power consumption is reasonable for a device that runs 24/7.

How the Mui Board's Sleep Tracking Actually Works

The Mui Board Gen 2 will ship with the ability to accept external mm Wave sensors. These sensors use radar to build a real-time map of your body's position and breathing. The data streams to the Mui Board's processor, which runs algorithms to determine whether you're awake, in light sleep, or in deep sleep.

Here's the practical implementation: You place the sensor (or sensors) in your bedroom. Most likely on a nightstand or wall mount. When you get into bed, the system begins tracking. The radar pings your body hundreds of times per second, creating a three-dimensional model of your position and respiration.

Mui's Calm Sleep Platform processes this data in real-time. The key innovation isn't just detecting sleep—it's responding to it intelligently.

Instead of showing you a sleep score or sleep graph, the system does three main things:

Environmental optimization: The Mui Board quietly adjusts lighting based on your sleep state. When you fall into deep sleep, it might dim lights further or shift the color temperature. If the system detects you're awake, it gradually brightens the room to help with morning alertness. This happens without any input from you.

Pre-sleep routines: The Calm Sleep Platform guides you through presleep stretching routines designed to ease the transition into sleep. These are suggested based on the time of day and your detected stress level, not just a generic routine everyone gets.

Voice-based stress detection: This is the part that genuinely surprised me when I read the specs. The system can apparently detect tiredness and stress from the sound of your voice. If you're running on fumes but pushing yourself to stay awake, the Mui Board might recommend you take a nap or adjust your schedule.

The algorithm differentiates between sleep stages by analyzing breathing patterns. Deep sleep is characterized by slow, regular breathing. REM sleep involves more variable breathing. Light sleep falls somewhere in between. This isn't EEG-level precision, but it's substantially better than simple movement detection.

The Mui Board Gen 2 offers a mid-range cost option for sleep improvement compared to other methods, with a focus on privacy and aesthetics. Estimated data.

Gesture Control: Interacting With Your Bedroom Without Touching Anything

The same mm Wave sensors that track your sleep also enable gesture control. This is where things get genuinely convenient.

Instead of reaching for your phone, fumbling for a light switch, or asking a voice assistant, you can simply wave your hand to control your bedroom. The radar detects the hand movement, recognizes the gesture, and triggers the corresponding action.

Imagine this scenario: Your alarm goes off. You're groggy and annoyed. Instead of reaching over to your phone or bedside control, you simply wave toward the sensor. The alarm stops. Your lights gradually brighten. The system knows from the previous night's data that you prefer to wake up over 5 minutes, not suddenly.

Or it's 3 AM and you can't sleep. You don't want to turn on the overhead lights because that'll fully wake you. You make a subtle gesture, and the bedroom accent lights dim to their lowest warm setting. No voice commands needed. No apps opened.

The gesture recognition works by analyzing how the mm Wave signal changes as your hand moves through space. The sensor builds a velocity profile of your motion. Different hand movements correspond to different commands. A swipe might mean "dim the lights." A wave could mean "turn off the alarm." A circular motion might trigger "do my bedtime routine."

This functionality requires the external mm Wave sensors, and it's worth noting that gesture control adds complexity. The sensors need to be positioned to "see" your hand movements, which means they need to be at a certain height and angle. Mui is still working out the optimal placement and gesture vocabulary, which is why exact specs aren't final yet.

The benefit here is profound for privacy-conscious people. You're not creating an audio record of everything you say (like with voice assistants). You're not being video recorded. The radar sees your hand shape and motion, but nothing more. No face identification. No monitoring what you're wearing. No record of who's in the room.

Why This Matters: The Bedroom Is the Last Place Deserving of Friction

There's a reason most smart home features work well in kitchens and living rooms but feel awkward in bedrooms. Your bedroom is where you're most vulnerable. You're partially dressed, exhausted, and probably not in the mood to fiddle with technology.

Traditional smart home control requires you to pull out your phone, open an app, navigate to the right room, find the right device, and trigger the action. That's maybe 20 seconds of friction when you just want your lights off. Multiply that by the dozen times per night some people adjust their environment, and you're talking about several minutes of smartphone interaction that you wouldn't do during the day.

Voice control cuts the friction significantly, but it comes with its own set of problems. You have to say commands out loud, which feels weird if you share a bedroom. You're creating an audio record of everything you request. And voice assistants have learned behavior patterns about your sleeping habits, wake times, and nighttime routines.

Gesture control eliminates all of this friction while maintaining privacy. You can adjust your environment with a subtle motion. No voice. No app. No record of when you did it.

The sleep tracking component addresses an even deeper problem: most people are terrible at understanding their own sleep patterns. You know you're tired, but you don't know if it's because you're not sleeping long enough, not getting enough deep sleep, or something else entirely. A smartwatch tells you a number ("You got 6 hours 23 minutes of sleep last night"), but that number doesn't actually help you sleep better tomorrow.

Mui's approach is different. Instead of telling you how much sleep you got, the system adjusts your environment to help you get better sleep going forward. This is the difference between a mirror and a coach. A mirror shows you what you look like. A coach shows you how to improve.

The Accuracy Question: How Close to EEG Is mm Wave Actually?

Mui claims that mm Wave sleep tracking achieves accuracy comparable to EEG (electroencephalography), which is the gold standard for measuring brain activity and sleep stages. But here's the crucial caveat: there's limited commercial data to verify this claim.

EEG sleep studies are expensive and require trained technicians. You go to a lab, get electrodes glued to your head, and sleep overnight while machines record your brain activity. The gold standard uses at least 16 electrodes placed at specific locations on the scalp. From this data, sleep scientists can identify five different sleep stages: wake, light sleep (N1, N2), deep sleep (N3), and REM sleep.

mm Wave radar can't directly measure brain activity. What it measures is breathing patterns, heart rate, and body movement. From these signals, it infers sleep stage. This is similar to how consumer smartwatches estimate sleep, but with better spatial resolution because the radar can see breathing patterns that accelerometers miss.

So when Mui says their system achieves "nearly as accurate as EEG," they likely mean that the correlation between mm Wave-detected sleep stages and actual EEG-detected sleep stages is very high. Maybe 85-95% agreement. That's genuinely impressive. But it's not the same as directly measuring brain activity.

Why does this matter? Because some people use sleep stage data to diagnose sleep disorders. If you suspect you have sleep apnea (where breathing repeatedly stops and starts), EEG combined with other sensors is what doctors use to confirm it. mm Wave alone wouldn't be sufficient for diagnosis. It's useful for optimization and general health insights, but not for medical diagnosis.

Mui is positioning this as a wellness tool, not a medical device. That's the appropriate positioning given the current capabilities.

The accuracy improvement over wearables comes down to a few factors:

Breathing detection: Smartwatches use heart rate variability to estimate breathing, which is indirect and often inaccurate. mm Wave directly detects chest movements from breathing, which is much more reliable.

Movement detection: Radar can see micro-movements that accelerometers miss. A slight body shift, a repositioning, a muscle twitch—all visible to radar but potentially missed by a wearable.

No physical contact required: Wearables lose accuracy if they shift position during sleep. Radar doesn't have this problem.

Continuous coverage: mm Wave covers the entire sleeping body. A wrist-worn device only measures one location.

For the purposes of improving your bedroom environment, mm Wave accuracy is more than sufficient. You don't need to know your exact sleep stage to benefit from intelligent lighting adjustments. You just need to know broadly whether you're asleep or awake, in light or deep sleep. mm Wave delivers that reliably.

mmWave radar technology achieves an estimated 85-95% accuracy in sleep stage detection compared to EEG, which is considered the gold standard with 100% accuracy. Estimated data.

The Privacy Advantage: Radar Instead of Cameras

Here's what genuinely excites me about this approach: it solves the bedroom privacy problem that's plagued smart home devices for years.

Smart home companies have tried to add cameras to bedrooms for sleep tracking. The devices promise that everything stays on-device and is processed locally, not sent to the cloud. But most people still refuse to install a camera in their bedroom. And rightfully so. Technology promises are broken regularly. The best privacy practice is not to collect data in the first place.

mm Wave radar avoids this entirely. The sensors emit radio waves and measure reflections. They can't see you. They can't identify your face. They can't determine what you're wearing or how you look. They can only tell that something's moving and breathing in a certain pattern.

This is important for adoption. People will accept technology in their bedroom if it maintains privacy. People won't accept technology that records anything that could identify them.

There's a secondary privacy benefit: the data is inherently deanonymizable. If someone gains access to your mm Wave sleep tracking data, they can't determine identity from it. With video or audio, identity is trivial to extract. With movement and breathing patterns alone, it's extremely difficult.

Mui's implementation stores this data locally on the Board itself, not in the cloud. You can review your sleep trends through their app, but the raw sensor data doesn't leave your home. This is the right approach for bedroom data.

Built-In Sensors: The Next Evolution

At CES 2026, Mui showed a modified Mui Board with mm Wave sensors built directly into the device. This is the ultimate form factor. Instead of adding external sensors that need their own placement and setup, the Board itself becomes the sensor.

Built-in sensors solve several problems:

Simpler setup: You don't need to position external sensors. The Board is already on your wall or shelf.

Better sensor positioning: Mui can optimize the sensor placement for sleep detection when designing the board itself.

Reduced clutter: One device instead of two or three.

Lower cost: Manufacturing sensors into the board is cheaper than producing separate sensors and selling them as add-ons.

The downside is obvious: this requires a redesign of the Mui Board itself. The device needs to accommodate antenna arrays, processing chips, and power distribution for the mm Wave system. It also needs to look good with these components integrated, which is harder than it sounds.

Mui is also likely waiting to see how the external sensor version performs in real homes before committing to a built-in design. There are probably unforeseen challenges with mm Wave in different bedroom layouts, furniture configurations, and wall materials.

Based on the CES showing, I'd expect a built-in mm Wave Mui Board sometime in 2026 or early 2027. That'll be the point where this technology becomes truly mainstream.

The Sleep Platform's Presleep Routine Feature

One of the more interesting aspects of the Calm Sleep Platform is the presleep routine guidance. Instead of you deciding what to do before bed, the system suggests activities based on your actual stress and fatigue levels.

This works because the system is continuously monitoring. During your evening, the Mui Board detects your voice through the gesture control sensors and can analyze stress indicators. It also integrates with your smart home calendar and daily schedule to understand what kind of day you've had.

If you've had a high-stress day and it's bedtime, the system might suggest a longer stretching routine or meditation. If you're already very tired and you're forcing yourself to work, it might recommend you skip the routine and get to bed immediately.

This is the "coach" versus "mirror" distinction again. Most wellness apps just tell you what to do. This system adapts based on your actual state.

The stretching routines themselves are guided through the Board's display (the piece of wood lights up with visual cues) or through audio cues. You don't need to look at your phone or follow an app on another device. Everything happens through the Board itself.

I'm curious whether these routines are generated dynamically by AI or if they're pre-recorded sequences. Dynamic would be more impressive but also more computationally expensive. Pre-recorded is simpler but less personalized. Mui hasn't detailed this yet.

mmWave technology offers a balanced solution with high accuracy and privacy at a moderate cost, compared to other sleep tracking methods. Estimated data.

Voice-Based Stress Detection: The Privacy Trade-Off

Mui's system can detect stress from your voice. This is where things get interesting from a technology perspective but also more complicated from a privacy perspective.

Voice stress detection works by analyzing acoustic features of your speech: pitch, frequency, rate of speech, and pause patterns. People who are stressed typically speak faster, at higher pitches, with more frequent pauses. People who are tired tend to speak slower with lower frequencies.

The good news is that this analysis doesn't require understanding the content of what you're saying. The system doesn't need to transcribe your words or understand language. It just analyzes the acoustic features.

The complication is that acoustic analysis is still collecting data about your voice. The data is processed locally (not sent to the cloud), but it's still being processed. If someone gains access to your Board, they could potentially use voice data for identification purposes.

Mui's approach minimizes this risk by not storing voice audio. The system analyzes the acoustic features in real-time and discards the audio. Only the stress/tiredness score is retained. This is appropriate for the use case.

Still, if you're privacy-conscious, it's worth understanding that you're opting into voice analysis. You can presumably disable this feature, but we don't have confirmation on that yet.

Timeline and Availability: When Can You Actually Get This?

The mm Wave sleep tracking and gesture control features are coming to the Mui Board Gen 2, but not immediately. Mui said "later this year" at CES 2026, which means sometime between now and December 2026.

For the external sensor approach, I'd expect a release in late Q2 or Q3 2026. Mui needs time to finalize the sensor design, test the algorithms with real users, integrate everything into their app, and handle all the manufacturing logistics.

The built-in mm Wave version shown at CES is probably 12-18 months away, assuming it's actually being developed for consumer release (it's possible it was just a concept).

Pricing is another unknown. The current Mui Board Gen 2 already costs more than most smart home hubs. Adding mm Wave sensors will increase the BOM (bill of materials) by at least $100-150 per unit. Whether Mui passes this entirely to consumers or absorbs some of the cost remains to be seen.

My guess is that the external sensor version will cost

Comparing mm Wave Sleep Tracking to Alternatives

Let's put this in perspective by comparing mm Wave to other sleep tracking approaches available right now:

Smartwatches and Rings: Widely available, $200-400 price range, require wearing to bed, decent accuracy for gross sleep/wake detection, excellent for movement data, poor at distinguishing sleep stages, sends all data to cloud servers.

Under-mattress sensors: Moderate cost ($300-800), completely passive, decent accuracy for movement and breathing, maintenance hassles, requires installation, works regardless of what you wear.

Sleep lab EEG: Gold standard accuracy, extremely expensive ($2000+ per night), requires travel to a clinic, only done occasionally for diagnosis, not for daily tracking.

Camera-based tracking: Excellent accuracy technically possible, complete privacy violation, rarely implemented in consumer products for this reason.

Bedside mm Wave (Mui's approach): Moderate cost (estimated $300-400), passive monitoring, high accuracy for sleep stage detection, privacy-preserving, requires good sensor placement, data stored locally.

In this comparison, mm Wave genuinely occupies a sweet spot. It's more accurate than wearables, more private than cameras, easier to use than under-mattress sensors, and much cheaper than EEG.

The main trade-off is sensor placement. You need to position the sensors correctly, whereas a smartwatch works anywhere. For bedroom-specific use, this is a reasonable trade-off.

The sleep technology market is projected to grow at an increasing rate, from 15% in 2023 to 21% by 2026, reflecting rising consumer interest and investment. Estimated data.

Integration With Smart Home Ecosystem

The Mui Board already works with most major smart home platforms: Home Kit, Google Home, and Alexa. The mm Wave sleep tracking will expand this integration.

When your sleep data is available to other smart home devices, the possibilities expand. Your smart lights could adjust before you even get out of bed. Your smart thermostat could optimize temperature during deep sleep. Your smart coffee maker could start brewing when the system detects you're entering light sleep in the morning.

This is where individual sleep tracking becomes a platform feature. It's not just about monitoring your sleep; it's about letting your entire home respond intelligently to your sleep state.

However, there's a privacy concern here. The more devices that know about your sleep, the more entities have access to intimate information about your health. Mui needs to be careful about which integrations are possible and ensure users have granular privacy controls.

I'd expect Mui to allow Home Kit integration (Apple's privacy track record is solid) but be more restrictive with cloud-dependent platforms initially. As the technology matures and user trust builds, broader integration might follow.

The Missed Opportunity: Why This Isn't Available Earlier

If mm Wave sleep tracking is such a compelling idea, you might wonder why it's taken this long to reach consumer products. The answer is that the technology has been improving rapidly, but the miniaturization and cost reduction are recent developments.

mm Wave radar has been used in premium cars for collision avoidance since the late 2010s. Smartphones started incorporating mm Wave sensors for gesture recognition around 2020. But embedding mm Wave in a low-power, affordable device that needs to run 24/7 is a different challenge.

The processing power required to run sleep detection algorithms in real-time is non-trivial. The sensor hardware was expensive. The development of accurate algorithms required extensive testing. All of this points to why consumer sleep-tracking mm Wave is arriving in 2026, not 2020.

That said, I think Mui might have missed an opportunity by not launching this with the original Board. A year's headstart in real-world algorithm training and user feedback would have been valuable. By waiting, competitors will eventually catch up and potentially execute better.

Future Potential: What Comes After Sleep Tracking?

Once mm Wave sleep tracking is proven, the logical question is: what else can mm Wave do?

Researchers are exploring mm Wave for detecting falls (useful for elderly care), monitoring heart rate (for cardiac patients), identifying when someone is home (for smart home automation), and even detecting certain medical conditions. The technology is fundamentally about measuring body position and movement with high precision.

For the bedroom specifically, future possibilities include detecting apnea events (periodic breathing cessation), identifying restless leg syndrome, and detecting when someone is having a nightmare (based on movement patterns). Some of these could have genuine medical applications.

The interesting question is whether consumer mm Wave sleep devices will ever be approved for medical use. That would require FDA clearance, clinical validation, and probably higher accuracy standards. It's possible but would require significant additional investment from Mui.

More likely, third-party developers will integrate with the Mui Board's data APIs to create specialized applications for specific sleep disorders.

Estimated data shows that the rate of speech has the highest impact on stress detection accuracy, followed by pitch and pause patterns.

The Gesture Control Game: It's Harder Than It Looks

Gesture control sounds simple until you try to implement it. The challenge isn't detecting a hand movement; the challenge is recognizing which of dozens of possible hand movements corresponds to which command, doing this reliably in different lighting conditions, room layouts, and with different users.

Mui's mm Wave approach actually handles this better than previous gesture recognition systems because radar doesn't depend on lighting or optical clarity. You could be in complete darkness and gesture control would still work perfectly.

But the algorithm challenge remains. How many distinct gestures can users reasonably distinguish? Research suggests that 5-7 gestures is the sweet spot. More than that and users forget the vocabulary. Fewer and you run out of commands.

For bedroom use, the most important gestures are probably: dismiss alarm, dim lights, brighten lights, turn off everything, and trigger a routine. That's five gestures. Completely manageable.

I'd expect Mui to start with these core gestures and gradually add more based on user feedback and demand.

What Happens to Your Sleep Data?

This is the question that should concern every privacy-conscious person considering the Mui Board: where does the data live, who can access it, and what happens if the company is acquired?

Mui's current stance is that sleep data stays on the Board itself. You can sync specific metrics to the Mui app for review, but the raw sensor data doesn't leave your home. This is appropriate.

Where it gets tricky is if Mui is acquired. Companies get acquired by larger corporations with different privacy philosophies. A company acquired by Google would have different data practices than a company acquired by Philips or a Chinese manufacturer.

Mui is currently a venture-backed private company. If you're considering this for the long term, understanding the company's funding and ownership is relevant to your decision.

On the positive side, Mui's entire brand is built on privacy and design. Their users specifically chose them because of these values. A massive pivot on data practices would destroy the brand, which gives some assurance they won't do it. But that's not a guarantee.

Real-World Challenges: Installation and Placement

Here's something the press releases don't talk about: where exactly do you put these sensors?

mm Wave radar performs best when it has a clear line of sight to the sleeping body. The sensors need to be positioned to "see" the bed. Nightstand placement is probably ideal. Wall mounting is acceptable. Hidden behind furniture is not.

In a typical bedroom, you probably need at least one sensor covering the sleeping area. If you have a large bedroom or a bed in the center of the room, you might need two sensors for full coverage.

The sensors emit radio waves constantly, which raises questions about RF (radio frequency) safety. mm Wave frequencies are non-ionizing and generally considered safe at the power levels these devices use. Regulatory agencies in various countries have set exposure limits, and consumer devices must comply. But the presence of an always-on emitter in your bedroom might feel uncomfortable to some people, even if it's technically safe.

Mui will need to address these practical installation questions when they release the external sensor version. Without good guidance, users will place sensors sub-optimally, get frustrated with accuracy, and return the product.

Competing Technologies: Who Else Is Working on This?

Mui isn't alone in pursuing mm Wave sleep tracking. Other companies and research institutions are exploring the technology:

Researchers at MIT have published papers on using mm Wave radar for sleep tracking and have achieved impressive accuracy. Some of this work has been licensed to or influenced companies working on consumer products.

Sleep tech startups are exploring mm Wave as an alternative to wearables. None have achieved the scale or brand recognition of the Mui Board yet, but the field is developing.

Larger tech companies like Amazon and Google likely have internal teams exploring mm Wave for various home applications, potentially including sleep tracking. If they decide to prioritize this, they have the resources to move fast.

The competitive landscape suggests this is an emerging category that multiple companies believe has real potential. This is actually good news for consumers—competition drives innovation and pricing down.

The Cost-Benefit Analysis: Is It Worth It?

The Mui Board Gen 2 alone costs

Compare that to other sleep improvement options:

• Mattress upgrade: $1000-2000, lasts 8-10 years
• Blackout curtains: $100-300, essentially permanent
• Sleep app subscription: $10-20/month
• Therapist or sleep specialist: $100-200/session
• Wearable sleep tracker: $200-400
• Medication: $10-100/month (usually not recommended)

Mui's approach isn't the cheapest option, but it's not the most expensive either. The value proposition depends on your situation:

If you're someone who's had good success with lifestyle changes (exercise, consistent schedule, optimized environment), the Mui Board might help you fine-tune those further. The gesture control and intelligent lighting alone provide value beyond sleep tracking.

If you have a diagnosed sleep disorder, you probably need medical intervention first. Sleep tracking alone won't fix sleep apnea or insomnia caused by underlying conditions.

If you're just curious about your sleep patterns, a

The sweet spot for Mui is people who value privacy, care about home design aesthetics, have some disposable income, and want to optimize an already-decent sleep situation.

Looking Ahead: What 2026 and Beyond Holds for Sleep Technology

The broader trend in sleep technology is moving toward passive monitoring (no wearables required) and intelligent response (the device adapts rather than just reporting data). Mui's approach aligns perfectly with these trends.

I expect we'll see mm Wave sleep tracking become more common over the next 2-3 years. What will differentiate products is how intelligently they respond to sleep data and how well they maintain privacy.

We might also see new form factors emerge. Bedside lamps with integrated mm Wave sensors. Headboards with sensing capabilities. Pillows with embedded antennas. The advantage of mm Wave is that it doesn't require any contact with the body, so it can be embedded in many different products.

The most interesting development would be open-source or standardized APIs for sleep data. If your sleep data can be shared securely between different devices and services, you could have Google Home, Home Kit, and third-party apps all responding to your sleep state. But this requires privacy-preserving standards that don't exist yet.

Mui's role in this emerging ecosystem will be important. If they execute well on the sleep platform, they could become the standard bearer for privacy-preserving sleep monitoring in the home. If they stumble on accuracy or user experience, competitors will leapfrog them.

The Design Philosophy: Why the Wooden Board Matters

Something worth understanding about Mui is that the entire company is built around a design philosophy: smart home technology shouldn't look like technology.

Most smart home hubs are dark boxes or cylindrical speakers with LED rings. They announce their presence. You look at them and know they're devices. The Mui Board looks like a minimalist piece of art on your wall.

This design philosophy extends to how the features work. The sleep tracking doesn't bombard you with numbers. The gesture control doesn't require visible gestures; a subtle wave works. The lighting adjustments are gradual and unobtrusive.

This is relevant to sleep tracking because the worst thing a sleep tracking device can do is make you anxious about your sleep. If you're checking your sleep score obsessively and getting stressed about numbers, the device is hurting you, not helping.

Mui's approach prevents this by design. You can't get obsessive over metrics if the device doesn't shove metrics in your face. This is actually a feature, not a limitation.

It's why I think Mui has a real chance of success here where others have failed. They understand that sleep is fundamentally about relaxation and lack of anxiety. A device that looks great and stays out of your way is more likely to improve sleep than a device that's constantly demanding your attention.

Practical Considerations: Privacy and Security

Before you decide whether the Mui Board's sleep tracking is right for you, consider these practical security and privacy questions:

Does the system get updates over Wi-Fi? If so, how long does Mui commit to supporting the device? Five years? Ten years? Once support ends, security vulnerabilities might not get patched.

Can you disable specific features? Can you turn off voice analysis if you're uncomfortable with it? Can you use gesture control without enabling sleep tracking?

What happens if you forget your password or Mui's servers go down? Does the Board still work locally? Or does a server outage break your bedroom automation?

How transparent is the sleep detection algorithm? Can independent researchers audit how it works? Or is it proprietary black box?

What's Mui's track record on privacy? Is this their first product? Have they handled security updates well? What do security researchers say about the device?

These questions matter more than the raw technology features. A great feature implemented insecurely is worse than a mediocre feature implemented securely.

Final Thoughts: The Future of Bedroom Automation

When I step back and look at what Mui is attempting, I see a genuinely thoughtful approach to bedroom automation. They're not trying to turn your sleep into data to monetize. They're not trying to make bedroom tech look futuristic and gadgety. They're trying to make your bedroom better at helping you sleep without creating anxiety or privacy violations.

The mm Wave sleep tracking is interesting technology, but it's not revolutionary on its own. What's revolutionary is the whole package: tracking that doesn't require wearables, visualization that doesn't create anxiety, gesture control that respects privacy, and a device that looks good while doing all this.

Will this specific implementation be perfect? Probably not. There will be accuracy issues. Gesture recognition will sometimes fail. The algorithms will need refinement based on real-world usage. But the direction is right.

The fact that this is coming to market in 2026, not 2030, suggests that sleep tech is genuinely maturing. A few years ago, the idea of passive mm Wave sleep tracking in a consumer smart home device would have seemed impossible. Now it's a feature announcement.

If you care about sleep quality, value privacy, and appreciate good design, the Mui Board with mm Wave capabilities is worth watching closely. If you need sleep tracking right now, other options exist. But if you can wait until later in 2026, this might be the most thoughtful approach to bedroom automation available.

FAQ

What exactly is millimeter-wave radar?

Millimeter-wave (mm Wave) radar emits radio waves at frequencies between 30 and 300 GHz and measures the reflections bouncing off objects and people. It works similarly to how radar detects aircraft, but at a much smaller scale with much higher resolution. Unlike cameras or microphones, mm Wave can't identify faces or hear conversations—it only detects position, movement, and breathing patterns, making it privacy-preserving for bedroom use.

How does the Mui Board detect sleep stages without wearing anything?

The mm Wave sensors emit radio waves that penetrate blankets and pillows, then analyze how the reflected signals change as your breathing pattern and body position shift. Different sleep stages have distinct breathing patterns: deep sleep shows slow, regular breathing while REM sleep has more variable breathing. By analyzing these patterns in real-time, the system infers which sleep stage you're in without requiring any wearable device.

How accurate is mm Wave sleep tracking compared to EEG?

Mui claims mm Wave achieves accuracy "nearly comparable to EEG," though independent verification is limited. While EEG directly measures brain activity (the gold standard), mm Wave infers sleep stages from breathing and movement patterns. For wellness purposes, mm Wave accuracy is excellent—probably 85-95% agreement with EEG results. However, for medical diagnosis of sleep disorders, EEG remains the standard because it measures brain activity directly.

Can the gesture control work if I'm not awake?

No, the gesture control requires intentional hand movements. It's designed for times when you're conscious but want to avoid reaching for a phone or touching a switch. For automatically adjusting your environment while you're fully asleep, the system relies on the passive sleep detection and pre-programmed responses, not gesture input.

Is it safe to have an always-on radio transmitter in my bedroom?

The mm Wave frequencies used in consumer devices are non-ionizing radiation and generally considered safe by regulatory agencies worldwide. The power levels in these devices are very low—similar to Wi-Fi routers you might already have. That said, some people prefer to minimize RF exposure. Understanding your own comfort level is more important than the technical safety data.

When will the Mui Board with built-in mm Wave sensors be available?

Mui showed a modified Board with integrated sensors at CES 2026, but this is not yet a released product. Based on the development timeline, expect built-in mm Wave sensors to arrive in 2026 or early 2027. The external sensor version is confirmed for release later in 2026, with pricing and exact timing to be announced.

Can I use the Mui Board's sleep data with other smart home systems?

The Mui Board already integrates with Home Kit, Google Home, and Alexa for basic control. Sleep data integration with third-party devices will likely be limited initially to protect privacy, but Mui may expand integrations over time as user trust builds and privacy safeguards are proven. Home Kit integration is most likely given Apple's privacy track record.

What happens to my sleep data if I stop using the Mui Board?

Sleep data is stored on the Board itself, not in the cloud. If you stop using the Board, you'd need to export the data through Mui's app before discontinuing service. Mui hasn't detailed their data retention policy after you deactivate your account, so this is worth clarifying directly with the company before purchase.

How does the stress detection from voice analysis work?

The system analyzes acoustic features of your speech (pitch, frequency, speech rate, and pause patterns) without transcribing words or understanding language. Stressed voices show higher pitch and faster speech; tired voices show lower pitch and slower speech. The analysis happens locally without storing audio files, making it more privacy-preserving than voice transcription systems.

Is mm Wave sleep tracking better than sleep tracking smartwatches?

mm Wave offers advantages in accuracy, sleep stage detection, and privacy since it doesn't require wearing anything. However, smartwatches have advantages in activity tracking throughout the day, heart rate data during exercise, and broader ecosystem integration. For bedroom-specific sleep optimization, mm Wave is superior. For comprehensive health tracking, smartwatches might better suit your needs.

Conclusion

The Mui Board's addition of mm Wave sleep tracking and gesture control represents a meaningful evolution in bedroom automation. Rather than adding gimmicky features, Mui is addressing genuine friction points: the need to wear something to get sleep data, the privacy concerns with camera-based systems, and the awkwardness of voice control in intimate spaces.

The technology itself is sound. mm Wave radar has proven itself in automotive and aerospace applications. The miniaturization required for consumer use is challenging but well within current engineering capabilities. The algorithms for sleep stage detection, while not EEG-equivalent, are accurate enough for wellness optimization rather than medical diagnosis.

What matters most is execution. Will the external sensors be easy to install? Will the gesture recognition work reliably? Will the sleep recommendations actually improve sleep quality or create anxiety? Will privacy truly be maintained as promised? These real-world questions will determine whether the Mui Board becomes a market success or remains a niche product for design-conscious early adopters.

The broader context is encouraging. Sleep technology is becoming a priority for major tech companies and well-funded startups. The market is growing at roughly 15% annually. Passive, privacy-preserving monitoring is the clear direction the industry is heading. Mui's approach aligns with these trends and deserves serious consideration from anyone thinking about upgrading their bedroom setup.

If you've struggled with sleep tracking in the past—if you found smartwatches annoying, if you're uncomfortable with cameras in your bedroom, if you want your smart home to be less intrusive—the Mui Board might finally be the solution you've been waiting for. The wait until late 2026 is frustrating, but given the thoughtfulness of the design and the privacy protections built in, it might be worth it.

The future of bedroom technology shouldn't require you to choose between better sleep and privacy. Mui is building a device that doesn't force that choice. That's genuinely worth paying attention to.

Key Takeaways

• mmWave radar detects sleep patterns through breathing analysis without wearables, achieving EEG-comparable accuracy for consumer use
• The technology prioritizes privacy by using passive sensors instead of cameras, with data processed locally rather than sent to cloud servers
• Gesture control enables bedroom automation without voice commands, solving privacy and friction concerns of traditional smart home interaction
• External sensors releasing late 2026, with built-in versions coming 2026-2027, representing a major evolution in bedroom automation design
• mmWave sleep tracking works by analyzing breathing pattern changes across sleep stages rather than measuring brain activity directly
• The Calm Sleep Platform quietly adjusts lighting and suggests routines instead of obsession-inducing metrics, preventing sleep anxiety
• At estimated
  $300-400 for sensors plus$
  499+ for the Board itself, mmWave offers a middle ground between wearables and medical-grade sleep labs

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