Our Approach: Using Sound Alone:

Our product focuses on sound alone as a therapeutic tool, for these reasons:

1) We feel that sound is less invasive. A patient can go for a walk while listening to therapeutic sound, and still navigate their surroundings with no complications.

2) Blinking light (stroboscopic light) is more prone to causing serious adverse effects in users, like migraines and even seizures.

3) It's impossible to use a stroboscopic light based product while driving.

4) In many cases, the perception of blinking light is weakened when not in one's direct view, which is why some products require the user to wear special glasses, or sit directly in front of their light product. Sound, on the other hand, can be perceptually effective even when the source is separated from the user.

Existing Technologies and Their Potential Issues:

Current gamma wave therapy methods often rely on short bursts of 40Hz stimuli, and require prolonged exposure, lacking easy integration into daily activities. MIT research has shown promising results in using 40Hz flickering lights and sound pulses to slow brain volume loss and functional decline in Alzheimer’s patients. However, the use of stroboscopic lights at 40Hz has proven to be uncomfortable and potentially dangerous for some users. 40Hz isochronic tones (fast bursts of audio) are also irritating for many patients.

Our Proposed Advancements

User-Controlled Comfort: Introducing customizable comfort-level-sliders (allowing the user to fade in the amount of background masking, or to elongate the audio bursts) for more tolerable, long-duration listening seesions. This ensures patient comfort without sacrificing efficacy. Less masking may be more effective, but is likely tolerable for shorter periods.

40Hz Modulated Music: Introducing modulation of any sound (such as music in a Spotify playlist) with a subtle 40Hz pulse, enhancing comfort and integrating therapy more seamlessly into daily life activities.

Imperceptible Audio Pulse: This is our primary advancement – through interspersing the primary sound bursts between specially filtered white-noise bands, we hope to deliver an effective 40Hz therapy that is perceived as a constant background noise, with no agitating side effects.