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Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

buddhamindapp.com

21–30 of 47 posts

Re: Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

#21
post #15

Have you considered adding an Amazon affiliate link to the website for purchasing a Bluetooth heart rate monitor?

This is an excellent suggestion. By doing more of the work for me by informing me which heart monitors work well with your system removes one of the common barrier with adopting a new system. That is, how much effort will it take to get this set up?

Re: Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

#22
post #14

This isn't compatible with my iPod Touch from July-- I haven't updated to iOS 6 and I don't have intentions of updating. Any chance it will be compatible later?

Yes, sorry, this is the first app I built, and I kind of pushed it through while dealing with serious impacted wisdom teeth and surgery. It should already work with iOS 5, but I must have set the metadata wrong. I've added that fix to get working for you by the next release.

Thanks. I noticed it should work for iPhone 4S, so I thought I'd ask.

Side note: I'm impressed that this is what you did after your surgery. I only managed a couple of small ruby scripts.

Re: Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there anywhere that an interested Android user could sign up to get an email when the Android version is available? I'd be happy to help beta test, and I'm sure other Android users would be interested in helping out as well.

Yep, woops, being a single founder of a company means you make dumb mistakes like this. I'll get one up right now. Edit: Done. http://eepurl.com/t7DzL

I'm so happy you guys are using a real email address validation software!

I just had to take over yet another person's itunes account this morning because they signed up using essentially my gmail address but with a period in it somewhere.

I don't know where the trend to no longer validate email addresses came from, but it's made my life hell because I was able to get a firstname@gmail.com address while gmail was in beta.

I'm looking forward to trying out the android version when you have it available.

Re: Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

#24

Can you provide a link to buy the heart rate monitor/easily see options available?

Hey sorry, I meant to get that up too. So, during my testing I've found that the Polar H7 is really the best heart rate monitor, bar none. You don't need any electrode gel with it, it keeps perfect track of your heart, and it doesn't disconnect like some of the other monitors. Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Polar-Bluetooth-Smart-Heart-Sensor/dp/...

FYI, Polar H7 is iOS supported only. Android/Windows users should not buy one.

http://www.polar.com/en/support/FAQs/H7_heart_rate_sensor_co...

Re: Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

#25
Saying this app teaches "mind control" seems a bit disingenuous. Perhaps "heart rate control" (with additional hardware)? Without the additional hardware, the app is simply a meditation tracker.

The Muse promises to monitor brain waves via mobile device: http://www.gizmag.com/interaxon-muse-brain-wave-headband/246...

EDIT: Apparently there is already such a device on the market: http://www.neurosky.com/Products/MindWaveMobile.aspx

I remember a similar but much cruder device in the mid-90s which used a glove and allowed basic control over a ski game via brain waves.

Re: Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

#26

Feel free to ask me any questions, thanks for all the comments. I have a blog post coming up about how I developed the concept using an Arduino and Clojure to measure my meditation. You can read a bit about that over at my blog: http://www.kpkaiser.com/mindhack/hacking-meditation-with-the...

Nice article! Have you considered open sourcing your hardware design and components? And even your software?

I'd love to start messing with things like this need a starting point.

Re: Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

#27

Feel free to ask me any questions, thanks for all the comments. I have a blog post coming up about how I developed the concept using an Arduino and Clojure to measure my meditation. You can read a bit about that over at my blog: http://www.kpkaiser.com/mindhack/hacking-meditation-with-the...

Looking at the heart rate charts on the front page, it seems that the rates during meditation are actually much higher on average (eyeballed at 92 bpm) than the rates while surfing the internet (eyeballed average of 75 bpm) (and while the meditation rates have a lower variance, their mean seems to be in about the same range as the absolute highest heart rates while surfing the web).

As someone who knows nothing about meditation (but obviously I have some background assumptions), this is surprising to me. I would expect meditation to be relaxing, and I would expect to see lower, i.e., closer to resting heart rates (<60 bpm). Can you explain this?

Re: Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

#28
Interesting idea. Looking forward to the android app.

Though I have to say I'm not convinced that your heart rate can tell you if your meditating 'correctly'. But its interesting data anyways. I would like to be able to upload my data anonymously and look at the aggregate data across many meditators to see if there are any trends.

Re: Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

#29
post #27

Feel free to ask me any questions, thanks for all the comments. I have a blog post coming up about how I developed the concept using an Arduino and Clojure to measure my meditation. You can read a bit about that over at my blog: http://www.kpkaiser.com/mindhack/hacking-meditation-with-the...

Looking at the heart rate charts on the front page, it seems that the rates during meditation are actually much higher on average (eyeballed at 92 bpm) than the rates while surfing the internet (eyeballed average of 75 bpm) (and while the meditation rates have a lower variance, their mean seems to be in about the same range as the absolute highest heart rates while surfing the web). As someone who knows nothing about…

Yes, sorry, that part was a bit weird. I'd taken that meditation from after I'd gone running. My normal meditations have heart rate variance between 66 and 96 BPM. Very good eye in observing the higher rate.

And I'm not trying to judge or interpret anything from the data, I'm just giving to users to explore the ways in which meditation changes things for themselves.

Re: Show HN: I Built An App to Teach Mind Control

#30

Feel free to ask me any questions, thanks for all the comments. I have a blog post coming up about how I developed the concept using an Arduino and Clojure to measure my meditation. You can read a bit about that over at my blog: http://www.kpkaiser.com/mindhack/hacking-meditation-with-the...

Nice article! Have you considered open sourcing your hardware design and components? And even your software? I'd love to start messing with things like this need a starting point.

Yes! I originally built this platform on an Arduino with some off the shelf components. I wanted to build a meditation device that works with Bluetooth LE, so all phones can use it, and really build the platform for meditation.

You can read about it on my blog and sign up for more info. A post will be forthcoming, and I might do a kickstarter to give people startup kits to build their own meditation and mind experiments using measuring devices.

http://www.kpkaiser.com/

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