They call it “life’s most essential skill – the ability to switch off and relax, where and when you want”. We featured them as ‘start-up of the Day‘ earlier this year. Now, the makers of AlphaBeats, an app that guides your brain into ‘alpha mode’ while listening to your favourite music, are inviting visitors of Innovation Origins to beta-test the app. On a first-come-first-serve basis, an exclusive group of people gets the opportunity to try it out.
AlphaBeats builds on 8 years of neurofeedback research by companies at High Tech Campus Eindhoven. “After testing the solution at the Tilburg University, showing that Alphabeats is two times more effective in getting people relaxed than listening to music alone, we have now turned this revolutionary technology into an easy to use solution for the rapidly growing number of people suffering from stress and burn-out complaints”, co-founder Bert-Jan Woertman says.
“Music has a powerful effect on your mind. Many people already use it to relax and unwind to cope with speeding life. Listening to your favourite tunes gets you in a good mood. But listening to normal music only goes so far. We figured that it would be even better if the relaxation effect was enhanced, so you could really relax, even in the most stressful of times.”
According to Woertman, the AlphaBeats App helps your mind to regulate itself, without the need for you to engage consciously. The combination of audio neurofeedback and implicit learning, are amplifying the relaxation effect of one’s favourite music. “With AlphaBeats the brain can “hear” what the brain is doing, creating a lever to internally regulate your mind. You just sit back, hit ‘play’ and your brain is guided intuitively into relaxation.”
We wish everybody a relaxed 2020… More smiling, less worrying. More AlphaBeats, less stress. Thank you InnovationOrigins for this podcast featuring AlphaBeats as the first Innovation Bite of 2020.
Hearing music can make your brain stress-free. Eindhoven startup AlphaBeats has developed a system that uses your own music to relax the brain even more, writes Innovation Origins. The brain and heart activity is monitored in real-time and based on these measurements an algorithm adjusts the music slightly.
This allows the brain to be in “alpha mode” within ten minutes. This is a relaxed state where the brain produces waves at a lower frequency. AlphaBeats wants to combat stress, the disease of our time. “We live in a world that seems to have forgotten how to relax,” said AlphaBeats CMO Han Dirkx.
A biofeedback technology to release the modern world from stress: AlphaBeats has built a system that uses a person’s favourite music to relax their brain. Based on real-time monitoring of brain and heart activity, an algorithm enables a slight modification of the music, enticing the brain to go into an “alpha mode” and relax.
AlphaBeats claims it can guide your brain into the alpha mode in just 10 minutes. Alpha stands for alpha waves, waves produced when your brain is relaxed. AlphaBeats has been working inside the Eindhoven based HighTechXL accelerator, for some months now, and used XL Day for their first public announcement. “We are living in a world that seems to have forgotten how to relax”, said AlphaBeats CMO Han Dirkx, on stage at XL Day. “Our brain and nervous system live in a perpetual state of arousal and stimulation. And we hardly give ourselves the opportunity to truly relax.” Innovation Origins spoke with AlphaBeats CEO Bert-Jan Woertman.
What’s the problem you are dealing with? It’s all about this disease of modern times: stress. Just for the fun of it, we recently did a quick web search for ‘relax’. It confirms what we all already know. Our Google search came up with 891,000,000 responses. 891,000,000! This number and a quick scan of the results tell me that we are desperately looking for ways to unplug, unwind and reconnect with ourselves. And all together, we may be going about it the wrong way. But at the same time, it’s hard not to fall into the stress trap. We are surrounded by distractions like our smartphones and social media. In the words of T.S. Eliot, we find ourselves ‘distracted from distraction by distraction.’ With more and more of the world’s population suffering from stress-related conditions, it’s clear that we must all be more proactive in fighting stress.
Bert-Jan Woertman, CEO AlphaBeats
Yes, we can recognize that. So, what is your solution? Music has a powerful effect on the mind, helping us relax and unwind to cope with the turbo-speed pace of life. Listening to your favourite tunes puts you in a good mood but listening to “normal” music only goes so far to relieve stress. AlphaBeats enhances the relaxation effect, so you can really relax, even when experiencing high-stress levels. We have the technology to counter stress and bring balance back to your life. Using technology developed at Philips, AlphaBeats combines music augmented with neurofeedback. Simply put, AlphaBeats amplifies the relaxation effect of music. Using AlphaBeats regularly over a period of time changes your brain’s reactions to the world around you. Using our patented biofeedback solution, you learn to guide your brainwaves to the desired state – relaxation – by listening to your own favourite music.
Tell us more about the technology Our product measures real-time brain activity with an electroencephalogram (EEG) that analyses your brainwave patterns associated with stress. Also, biofeedback through your heart rate variability or breath can be used. As you listen and relax, AlphaBeats measures this activity, gently increasing the quality of the music enticing you to relax a little more, and more and more. Combining the two enables you to slow down and quickly reach a state of deep relaxation.
Important to say that this is not something we just imagined. Our solution has been scientifically validated in four years of PhD research by Marian Dekker at Tilburg University.
Do you need a special device for these analyses? For now, all you need is an app you can download on your smartphone. It measures the breathing of the user and very soon it will also show your heart rate variability and after that an EEG that will show brain activity. This allows us to ‘see’ how tense someone is. Based on these real-time measurements, our patented algorithm adapts your own favourite music in such a way that your brain reacts with relaxation. We can get heart rate and EEG from coupling with smart wearables like watches and headsets.
Ok, don’t blame me, but I am a fan of Arctic Monkeys. How would they sound using AlphaBeats? Based on the bio and neurofeedback, the audio frequency of your music will be adjusted. Depending on how relaxed or stressed you are, the music is adapted. The best thing – even for an Arctic Monkeys fan – is that you may not hear the difference yourself, but your brain does. In this way it learns implicitly, so without conscious clues, to relax.
You just started. How do you plan to conquer the world? We want to start testing with the first large group of interested people in January. About 300 people – that’s 82% of the people we have asked – have indicated that they would like to participate and think with us about developing the app and the user experience. After that, we want to grow quickly through these ambassadors, worldwide. We think this is feasible. People suffer from stress and are looking for solutions. The mindfulness market has been growing tremendously for years. We have a brand new solution. And because we don’t need our own hardware, we can grow very fast.
Our ultimate goal is that we help people relax easily and quickly in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and come back to themselves, wherever and whenever they want. Now, too many people go on for too long and that causes all kinds of problems that start small, but get bigger and bigger. Businesswise, our ultimate goal is a partnership with Spotify and Apple Music and wearables like Apple Watch, Fitbit and Muse. Think of ‘AlphaBeats inside’.
A biofeedback technology to release the modern world from stress: AlphaBeats has built a system that uses a person’s favourite music to relax their brain. Based on real-time monitoring of brain and heart activity, an algorithm enables a slight modification of the music, enticing the brain to go into an “alpha mode” and relax.
AlphaBeats claims it can guide your brain into the alpha mode in just 10 minutes. Alpha stands for alpha waves, waves produced when your brain is relaxed. AlphaBeats has been working inside the Eindhoven based HighTechXL accelerator, for some months now, and used XL Day for their first public announcement. “We are living in a world that seems to have forgotten how to relax”, said AlphaBeats CMO Han Dirkx, on stage at XL Day. “Our brain and nervous system live in a perpetual state of arousal and stimulation. And we hardly give ourselves the opportunity to truly relax.” Innovation Origins spoke with AlphaBeats CEO Bert-Jan Woertman.
What’s the problem you are dealing with?
It’s all about this disease of modern times: stress. Just for the fun of it, we recently did a quick web search for ‘relax’. It confirms what we all already know. Our Google search came up with 891,000,000 responses. 891,000,000! This number and a quick scan of the results tell me that we are desperately looking for ways to unplug, unwind and reconnect with ourselves. And all together, we may be going about it the wrong way. But at the same time, it’s hard not to fall into the stress trap. We are surrounded by distractions like our smartphones and social media. In the words of T.S. Eliot, we find ourselves ‘distracted from distraction by distraction.’ With more and more of the world’s population suffering from stress-related conditions, it’s clear that we must all be more proactive in fighting stress.
Yes, we can recognize that. So, what is your solution?
Music has a powerful effect on the mind, helping us relax and unwind to cope with the turbo-speed pace of life. Listening to your favourite tunes puts you in a good mood but listening to “normal” music only goes so far to relieve stress. AlphaBeats enhances the relaxation effect, so you can really relax, even when experiencing high-stress levels. We have the technology to counter stress and bring balance back to your life. Using technology developed at Philips, AlphaBeats combines music augmented with neurofeedback. Simply put, AlphaBeats amplifies the relaxation effect of music. Using AlphaBeats regularly over a period of time changes your brain’s reactions to the world around you. Using our patented biofeedback solution, you learn to guide your brainwaves to the desired state – relaxation – by listening to your own favourite music.
Tell us more about the technology
Our product measures real-time brain activity with an electroencephalogram (EEG) that analyses your brainwave patterns associated with stress. Also, biofeedback through your heart rate variability or breath can be used. As you listen and relax, AlphaBeats measures this activity, gently increasing the quality of the music enticing you to relax a little more, and more and more. Combining the two enables you to slow down and quickly reach a state of deep relaxation.
Important to say that this is not something we just imagined. Our solution has been scientifically validated in four years of PhD research by Marian Dekker at Tilburg University.
Do you need a special device for these analyses?
For now, all you need is an app you can download on your smartphone. It measures the breathing of the user and very soon it will also show your heart rate variability and after that an EEG that will show brain activity. This allows us to ‘see’ how tense someone is. Based on these real-time measurements, our patented algorithm adapts your own favourite music in such a way that your brain reacts with relaxation. We can get heart rate and EEG from coupling with smart wearables like watches and headsets.
Ok, don’t blame me, but I am a fan of Arctic Monkeys. How would they sound using AlphaBeats?
Based on the bio and neurofeedback, the audio frequency of your music will be adjusted. Depending on how relaxed or stressed you are, the music is adapted. The best thing – even for an Arctic Monkeys fan – is that you may not hear the difference yourself, but your brain does. In this way it learns implicitly, so without conscious clues, to relax.
You just started. How do you plan to conquer the world?
We want to start testing with the first large group of interested people in January. About 300 people – that’s 82% of the people we have asked – have indicated that they would like to participate and think with us about developing the app and the user experience. After that, we want to grow quickly through these ambassadors, worldwide. We think this is feasible. People suffer from stress and are looking for solutions. The mindfulness market has been growing tremendously for years. We have a brand new solution. And because we don’t need our own hardware, we can grow very fast.
Our ultimate goal is that we help people relax easily and quickly in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and come back to themselves, wherever and whenever they want. Now, too many people go on for too long and that causes all kinds of problems that start small, but get bigger and bigger. Businesswise, our ultimate goal is a partnership with Spotify and Apple Music and wearables like Apple Watch, Fitbit and Muse. Think of ‘AlphaBeats inside’.
EINDHOVEN – The newly founded company AlphaBeats will launch a product to help people with stress and burnout symptoms.
It is a mobile phone application that is able to change music based on bio-feedback like heart rate, breathing and brain waves to become more soothing. The Eindhoven based company uses an existing technology that was invented and patented by Philips.
Measure brain waves with headband According to AlphaBeats founder Bert-Jan Woertman, brain waves are measured with a headband. Breathing and heart rate can be measured by a mobile phone or a smartwatch. “After measuring it is only a matter of putting on your favorite music, which will completely relax your brain. The changes in tone frequency, which are barely audible, are registered by the brain. In hospitals, the system is already used for patients with ADD and autism. The difference is that we put it in an app and made it accessible to people who suffer from stress and burnout.”
“Medicine” for the tense mind Woertman says that music turns into a “medicine” for the tense mind. “After four years of research, scientific validation and more than 500 live demonstrations, our solution is ready for use in the rapidly growing mindfulness market. It is simple and fast. Best of all, it uses your own favorite music. Based on heart rate, breathing and brain waves, we know how “stressed” someone is. Our algorithm adjusts the music, based on those measurements, in such a way that your brain responds with relaxation. In short, it means that we reward the brain for relaxation. We use the principle of implicit learning, learning by doing, without conscious instructions on how to do it. So sit back, put music on and our algorithm and your brain do the rest of the work. ”
AlphaBeats wants to start a commercial test of the system in February to later bring it to the market, possibly with partners such as Spotify and Apple.
In this world of constant engagement and stresses, it can get difficult to take some time out and relax. While there are many ways to unwind and get a step ahead of burnout, we don’t really know how well they work. Now, the Eindhoven-based startup AlphaBeats has come up with a new technology that can quantify if you really are relaxed and if not, it can help you wind down. The new technology aims at enabling stress management and is based on neurofeedback.
Measuring real-time brain activity
Anyone hardly thinks about any scientific parameters while taking a break, whereas AlphaBeats measures real-time brain activity. When we relax, our brain emits alpha waves and the startup has come up with a new biofeedback technology that measures real-time brain activity and the company’s algorithm modifies a person’s music to help them relax. This is apparently done in just 10 minutes.
“We live in a world that seems to have forgotten how to relax,” says Han Dirkx, AlphaBeats’ CMO. “Our brain and nervous system live in a perpetual state of arousal and stimulation. And we hardly give ourselves the opportunity to truly relax.” The new stress management solution was recently showed off at HighTechXL´s XL Day where Dirkx shared results of four years of scientific validation at the Tilburg University, which is said to show AlphaBeats being twice as effective in helping people relax as compared to simply listening to music.
AlphaBeats uses the listener’s favourite music and via neurofeedback and implicit learning, the music is amplified into ‘mental meds’. “With AlphaBeats the brain can “hear” what the brain is doing, creating a lever to internally regulate your mind without the need for you to engage consciously. You just sit back and play your favourite Spotify or Apple Music playlist, and your brain is guided intuitively into relaxation. Do this every day for four weeks and you’ll have mastered life’s most essential skill: the ability to relax,” the company says in a media release.
Technology not only changes your work, but also how you organize your life around your work. This can be seen during Dutch Design Week. From autonomous driving to the office to gadgets that reduce your stress.
During Dutch Design Week, Bright is looking for special concepts that combine technology and design, including those at the Manifestations expo. In this video, we look at tomorrow’s workday. Anic tests an anti-burnout room, and Erwin tries headphones that transmit sound through your skull.
