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Origin Stories: Naturespace
I've always been a sucker for soundscapes -- those looping sound effect CD's that whisk you away to the beach, or a rainforest or whatever. As I have a hard time "shutting down" my brain, these sounds give me something to get lost in and focus on, helping relax me. I think it's the same way for a lot of people, but when I introduce them to Naturespace's audio by way of their app, they are blown away. Naturespace captures incredible 3D audio and puts a vast library of it at your fingertips. If you've never tried the app, I highly recommend you download it. The free samples which come with it are enough to get you started, but since the App Store's debut the Naturespace team has consistently grown the in-app purchase content. There's now a dizzying array of sounds, from the real to the imaginary. In fact, there are now two apps but one, Thunder God, focuses solely on thunderstorms. Naturespace, at our request, made a video to explain where they got started. It actually began before the iPhone. But I'll let them tell the story in this fantastic edition of Origin Stories.
Elsewhere for Mac OS X takes you elsewhere
Elsewhere: Ambient Nature Sounds is a nice little free app that lives on your menu bar and plays ambient sounds in the background while you work or relax. There are three environments; City, Forest and Beach. Each soundscape has a switch for nighttime or daytime ambience, or the app can change automatically based on your time zone. Elsewhere's sounds seem of high quality, but I think they would best be appreciated on external speakers. You can add the sounds of rain to any of the environments for US$0.99, but I got along fine with the free sounds. I found that in general I liked the night variant, even during the day, except in the forest where some owls or other arboreal denizens were a bit distracting. The sounds are random, so it's not just a short loop endlessly repeating. On headphones the sound was quite good. The audio is stereo, and I thought the best directional effects were on the Beach preset. I don't know if my concentration was any better as a result of using Elsewhere, but I liked having the sound on, which works best for me if it is just above the level of audibility. Elsewhere is a 42 MB download that requires OS X 10.7 or better.
Shizen: Oceanscapes for iOS is relaxing and free
The makers of My Living Desktop for Mac OS X have released a free version of the app for iOS. Called Shizen: Oceanscapes, it features beautiful high-resolution looped movies of two tranquil scenes with audio on your iPhone or iPad for those who want some relaxation. The apps are ready for Apple's Retina display. Shizen is the Japanese word for nature. One scene depicts a windswept beach in Washington State. The other is a colorful coral reef that beats any of the computer graphic aquarium variety. You can run the video full screen or in letterbox mode and add a clock. There is a volume control for the natural sounds. %Gallery-173883% If you're hungry for more, the developers will be glad to sell you another eight screens for US$2.99 as in in-app purchase. I downloaded the free version to my iPad 3 and the video is truly stunning. It might be great to have running on your desk while you use a desktop or laptop computer, and it's a nice addition to a nightstand. I'd love to see a sleep function that would turn it off after a set period. Shizen: Oceanscapes is a nice holiday gift from the folks at Amuse Inc. and I find it a nice addition to my iPad and a great demo of the screen quality. The app is a 350 MB download (the added scenes are there waiting to be unlocked) and the app runs on any iPhone from the 3GS on up, the fourth- and fifth-generation iPod touch and the iPad. It needs iOS 6.0 and has been optimized for the iPhone 5. I have some sample scenss in the gallery but they don't capture the detail of the real thing.
The Soapbox: Using MMOs to relax and unwind
Every now and then, everyone needs to take a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to relax and unwind. The outside world can be loud, and the stresses of work and home life can add up quickly, so it helps to be able to switch off for a while. Some of us find relaxation in sitting down in front of the TV, others in zoning out to their favourite music, and an increasing number of people now wind down with computer games. I've personally found MMOs to be incredibly effective refuges from stress and anxiety, but until now I've never really thought about why that might be. Any game can provide a few hours of escape from the daily grind, but there's something special about MMOs that seems to make them more comforting places to be. Certainly MMOs are manufactured to give a sense of solid progress as you play, a fairness that the unpredictability of real life often can't deliver, but there has to be more to it. Do the music and ambient sounds in EverQuest II's virtual forests and glens produce the same reaction as walking through a real life wood? Likewise, does EVE Online trick us into slowing down, and is spending time in a virtual world just more appealing than slogging along in the real one? In this opinion piece, I look at some of the most relaxing areas and activities I've found in MMOs and try to figure out what makes them tick.
Flottille unfolding origami is anti-nanotechnology, pro-chilaxing (video)
Turn the lights off, crank up your Music for Airports LP, and clear your appointments for the rest of the afternoon -- it's time to get your relaxation on with Flottille, tiny paper snowflakes that unfold as they're exposed to water. French artist Étienne Cliquet uses a computer to design the machine-cut pieces, folds them by hand, and then gingerly dips them into the water with a pair of tweezers. The shapes expand slowly and hypnotically, likely the result of absorption through capillary action -- not quite self-folding origami, but it'll do in a pinch. Cliquet hopes they'll shine some light on the "disturbing potential of micro and nanotechnology." Fine, but what about the disturbing potential of origami-based technology?
Biofeedback anti-stress pen: a great idea that's not so great at reducing stress
We've all known for quite some time that the pen is mightier than the sword, and now science has given us a pen that is mightier (sort of) than the stress of that TPS report your boss needs right now. A student at Delft University in The Netherlands will receive his PhD this week for research that led him to create just such a pen. Based upon the obvious premise that people play with their writing utensils when anxious, the pen uses motion sensors instead of more conventional means of stress detection. When the pen detects stressful movements, internal electromagnets provide corresponding counter-motion feedback to stop your nervous tics. During experiments, the pen did diminish test subjects' heart rates around five percent, but according to feedback none of them actually "felt" less stressed. The pen isn't yet commercially available, and given its dubious value as an actual stress reliever, we would look to more satisfying methods to aid the relaxation process.
Drama Mamas: Control freak
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. We continue to receive the results of advice that we have given over the course of this column. But we're greedy and we want more! If we have answered a letter from you and you want to participate in our roundup column, please email us at DramaMamas@wow.com. We received the following letter a couple of months ago. It is impossible for us to answer every letter in a timely fashion, unfortunately. Still, we hope that this can still be of some help. Note: "Control Freak" was the subject of the letter writer's email and that's why we chose it as the title, not to be judgmental.
April ... Fools? Wii Qube and Wii Relax may be real
Last week, information started showing up online about Wii Qube and Wii Relax from a company in Italy called Pub Company. We declined to post about them, since a game in which you stick the Wiimote in a big cube and a game that uses a headset to measure your relaxation level seemed like obvious, annoying jokes, especially given their proximity to, uh, today. Pub Company sent out a press release today assuring us it isn't an April Fools Day windup. Qube is apparently a Tetris-inspired falling-blocks puzzle game controlled by moving a big cube around. Wii Relax is a series of two games, Relax Mind and Relax Body: "'Mind" will teach you to relax your mental state whilst 'Body' will help you to relax your body and alleviate stress. Forget about Yoga lessons and expensive massages: you'll be able to have a real Zen experience in your own living room."We're still not sure if this stuff is real.
Chamomile Tea proven ineffective as Warsong Gulch relaxer
The things we do in the name of Science, right? The folks over at Kamikaze Cookery decided to take one for the team, and put to the test the soothing effects of Chamomile tea and other similar herbal relaxants. The first step is pretty obvious: get loaded up on several cups of tasty, relaxing chamomile. Step two? Fire up World of Warcraft battlegrounds, and see if you can remain cool, collected, and totally frosty through the unending slaughter. Of course, the video does more than just bust the myth that nutraceutical sedatives will somehow turn a raging bull into a quiet kitten. The documentary also shows that the heart-pounding, migraine-inducing stress of trying to play team oriented PvP games in WoW can be universal. I guess the real drawback to the test is that we're now without the crutch of tea to talk us out of the trees. I truly laughed at their not-getting-sued version of playing the battlegrounds. It's funny because it's true, after all. Ultimately, I'd argue that a small group of people conducting this kind of stress-test is no statistically significant sample size. But, even if chamomile is 150% effective, during the battlegrounds, I have to side with Rupert Giles. "Tea is soothing; I wish to be tense." Thanks to Nomad for the tip!
First Look: Breath Pacer
We've all heard people talk about therapeutic breathing in common terms -- "take a deep breath", "breathe easy", or "remember to breathe". If you're under a lot of stress, therapeutic breathing can help to calm you down. Larva Labs has announced a new iPhone / iPod touch app called Breath Pacer that is designed to help you practice slow breathing and take advantage of the benefits. Breath Pacer lets you determine a personalized breathing algorithm based on your height, then takes you through guided inhaling, holding, and exhaling of breath. Animated cues show you when to inhale, hold, and exhale, and you can choose relaxing music to listen to along while using Breath Pacer.As Larva Labs points out, for the price of a good cup of coffee, you can reduce your stress and acheive a deeply relaxed state. Breath Pacer is available in the App Store (click opens iTunes) for US$2.99.
Wii Warm Up: Positioning
Think back to the first games you played on your Wii. Did you have to change the way you usually sit to play games? Discount anything you play standing; we're not talking about Wii Sports or Wii Fit here, but more traditional titles. Can you sit back and slouch, one leg slung over the arm of the sofa, or do you have to sit differently? We've noticed that positioning is a big part of a relaxed Wii gaming experiences -- you've got to find the right place for your hands depending on where and how your furniture is arranged. Has this affected you at all?
MC Square X1 relaxation DAP heads to America
Considering just how little vacation we Americans manage to take (and how stressed that usually leaves us), the only thing surprising about MC Square's X1 relaxation DAP coming here is how long it has taken. Nevertheless, those interested in picking up a snazzy new DAP and rocking some totally unhip goggles need look no further, as this system utilizes lights and sounds to "induce positive brain waves" and purge those negative vibes from your noggin. As for the player itself, it offers up a paltry 512MB of internal storage space, a miniSD expansion slot, image / text file viewer, voice recorder and an oh-so-vital biorhythm indicator. 'Course, for $399.99, we'd probably just pick up a new console, call in sick, and look a lot less foolish when ridding ourselves of Earthly burdens.[Via ZatzNotFunny]
Vyro Games' PIP wants to relieve your stress
Having trouble finding the time or place to relax? Feel constantly wound up? Looking for a way to have fun and relieve stress? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be alive. Additionally, you may also be interested in Vyro Games' PIP -- or Personal Input Pod. The premise of the device is simple: via Bluetooth, the teardrop-shaped biofeedback sensor relays your stress levels (measured in electrodermal activity, or sweat production) to software on a mobile phone, where it's used to control a simple game. The outcome of the game is dependent on how relaxed the user can get, and the program continuously monitors the player's stress levels and reacts accordingly, helping them develop control over the relaxation process. No word yet on price, or when the PIP will be available... but we're not going to stress out about it.[Via Impress]
Takara Tomy's UMINE projector induces R&R
Takara Tomy's been known to offer up a few oddities, and while the UMINE projector (shown after the jump) may not be the most cockamamie device to escape its labs, it does reek of something sold on a shameless late-night infomercial. Regardless, this portable toilet, er, mood projector reportedly beams images of beach scenes, waterscapes, and various other soothing atmospheres onto your ceiling or wall, which apparently helps you to divert your attention from the demands of reality (or yearn for a vacation). Of course, we've all ideas that this thing doesn't really turn your entire room into a theoretical paradise as the images so perfectly depict, but it might not be a half bad way to zone out for just $84.[Via AkihabaraNews]
Simmer Down Sprinter: compete to relax
We're always looking for an alternative to foosball here at Engadget HQ, and Simmer Down Sprinter just might be the most intriguing game we've seen in quite awhile. Quizzical minds are probably already worked up wondering what could possibly top foosball, but if you want to win this game, you should probably calm down. In another rendition of games where the calmest mind wins, Steve Lambert has designed a two-player arcade-style version where participants sit down and do their very best to relax. Ironically, the game's objective is to make your sprinter outrun your opponent's, but getting frantic won't help those legs move any quicker. The game senses the level of stress in your body -- better known as bio-feedback -- and converts your calmness into speed, while heightened stress will slow you down. So if you need a more entertaining way to get your blood pressure down from the stratosphere, just try to chill out during a high-paced, winner takes all game of competitive relaxation. [Via BoingBoing]
