In December 11th's Daily mail the health section had a small feature on a DVD which is said to calm the brain. The DVD was created after the developer's mother sadly suffered from vascular dementia (following a stroke) which limited the blood supply to her brain and often caused disturbing hallucinations for her.
Peter Higgins' mother benefited greatly from visiting the sensory room at a nearby care facility which "utilises coloured light, soothing sounds and shoots out bubbles to calm patients." Higgins wanted to recreate this calming effect on his mother when they returned home and so went about creating this DVD. He describes how he created the DVD; "The music playes at 60 beats per minute, which is similar to the perfect slow heart beat[...] and it is filled with constant and gentle repetitive movement." (Smellie, 2011)
This soothing combination promotes alpha brain waves which aid relaxation.
Peter has successfully launched the DVD in 300 Bupa care homes accross the UK.
www.asenseofcalm.com
Excerpts taken from;
Smellie, A, 2011. DVD that calms the brain. The Daily Mail, 11 December. 27.
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This article caught my eye for two reasons. I studied the effect of interative architecture and sensory rooms for my foundtion Final Major Project at college and their emotional calming effect intrigued me. The second reason is my interest in how digital media can affect our emotional state through their design; for example the game Flower. Flower uses 'flow' in the game combined with soothing music, gentle movement and beautiful visuals. It is classed as a Zen game and uses these characteristics to passively reduce the heart rate and calm a persons body.
I have read elsewhere on studies performed on gamers monitoring their brain responses and heart-rate when playing different types of game. (McGonigal, 2011) I would like to see this information being used to a greater extent, past just relaxing us - I want to see a game designed to emotionally motivate us, to stimulate thought production, to cure insomnia. This is where I would like to see research being carried out.
McGonigal, J, 2011. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. 2nd ed. Location 1,379: Penguin Press HC
http://janemcgonigal.com/
Peter Higgins' mother benefited greatly from visiting the sensory room at a nearby care facility which "utilises coloured light, soothing sounds and shoots out bubbles to calm patients." Higgins wanted to recreate this calming effect on his mother when they returned home and so went about creating this DVD. He describes how he created the DVD; "The music playes at 60 beats per minute, which is similar to the perfect slow heart beat[...] and it is filled with constant and gentle repetitive movement." (Smellie, 2011)
This soothing combination promotes alpha brain waves which aid relaxation.
Peter has successfully launched the DVD in 300 Bupa care homes accross the UK.
www.asenseofcalm.com
Excerpts taken from;
Smellie, A, 2011. DVD that calms the brain. The Daily Mail, 11 December. 27.
......................................................................................
This article caught my eye for two reasons. I studied the effect of interative architecture and sensory rooms for my foundtion Final Major Project at college and their emotional calming effect intrigued me. The second reason is my interest in how digital media can affect our emotional state through their design; for example the game Flower. Flower uses 'flow' in the game combined with soothing music, gentle movement and beautiful visuals. It is classed as a Zen game and uses these characteristics to passively reduce the heart rate and calm a persons body.
I have read elsewhere on studies performed on gamers monitoring their brain responses and heart-rate when playing different types of game. (McGonigal, 2011) I would like to see this information being used to a greater extent, past just relaxing us - I want to see a game designed to emotionally motivate us, to stimulate thought production, to cure insomnia. This is where I would like to see research being carried out.
McGonigal, J, 2011. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. 2nd ed. Location 1,379: Penguin Press HC
http://janemcgonigal.com/
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