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.
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 :)