[HN Gopher] Show HN: Smartphone haptics for inducing calm, an al...
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       Show HN: Smartphone haptics for inducing calm, an alternative to
       meditation
        
       Hey HN,  We've been working in neurotech over the past few years,
       primarily focusing on improving sleep. A friend asked if I would
       build her a vagal nerve stimulation device. These are devices used
       to improve relaxation, and "vagal tone". She didn't want to shell
       out hundreds for the existing solutions.  I originally said no, but
       then I thought, what if we leveraged smartphone haptics to achieve
       the same effect as these expensive devices?  After some tinkering,
       Harbor: Immersive Calm was published to the app store last week.
       https://getharbor.app  It's pretty basic and very MVP, no logins,
       just:  1)open the app  2) select an immersion (mix of sound and
       haptics)  3) select how long you want to be immersed (?)  4) lay
       back, put your phone on your chest, and feel the sensations.  In
       comparison to meditation, with Harbor, there is no "doing it
       right", : Lay back, Tune In & Chill Out.  I initially built for
       Android, but the fine-grained control and consistency of haptic
       motors in iOS device is a better experience. Though, I'm not ruling
       out a future dive into Android.  Here's a video
       demo(https://youtu.be/gr70kY9_Abk) for a sneak peek. Though,
       without the haptic feedback, you can't really get a feeling for the
       experience.  Compared to devices the cost hundreds of dollars plus
       subscriptions, we're thinking of a subscription model of $5/month.
       A friend who is a trauma therapist said she'd recommend it to some
       of her clients, and of course, there is the market of people who
       are looking to buy vagal nerve devices, and we can offer a lower
       cost alternative - and you don't have to wait for shipping :)
        
       Author : pedalpete
       Score  : 5 points
       Date   : 2023-10-05 19:28 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.getharbor.app)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.getharbor.app)
        
       | mouse_ wrote:
       | reminds me of https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/25/13046770/rez-
       | trance-vibra...
        
         | pedalpete wrote:
         | lol, I'd never seen that before, but when looking at how to
         | make haptics, there are lots of haptic body suits. I'm
         | wondering if someone (not me) should just make a vibrator with
         | an open api, but I guess that's what I'm using your phone as :)
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-05 23:02 UTC)