Croatian startup CORE Interface creates TinnitusOFF app for your phone
Tinnitus is the unpleasant ringing in the ears most of us have experienced from time to time, maybe after a loud concert or sports match. Usually it disappears after a time, but for three to five percent of people persistent tinnitus significantly decreases their quality of life.
Now the first high tech solution, the TinnitusOFF app, based on scientifically backed “notched music therapy” is available from a small Croatian startup, writes Poslovni Dnevnik.
TinnitusOFF Screen Shot
The company CORE Interface, started with help from the CORE Incubator angel investor and startub hub in Zagreb, has just released a free beta version of the TinnitusOFF app. The first 1500 people to download the app for Windows, Apple iPhone, iPod, or iPad, or Android devices will be able to try it for free.
Ratko Beck, founder of the company, MD and radiology specialist said: “We started the company realizing that almost five percent of world population suffers from persistent tinnitus. We are very pleased with the initial reaction to our campaign. We are a team of doctors, informaticians,and sports professionals, with no experience in marketing. This is for us a great adventure and learning experience.”
As well as Beck, the multidisciplinary team consists of neuroscientistand MD Raphael Bene, lecturer at Zagreb Faculty of Medicine, basketball trainer Marin Mindoljević, and engineers, Ivan Fabek and Anđelko Katalenić. Beck said that Bene and him realized three years ago, while reading medical journals, that they could try solving some of the medical problems themselves. “Very rapidly we realized that we needed a multidiciplinary team and entered the CORE Incubator.” he said, adding that they are developing several other medical technology products.
From left to right: Mindoljević, Beck, Bene, Fabek and Katalenić
The app is based on “tailor made notched music therapy”, where you listen to music with tones around your tinnitus frequency damped out. After prolonged exposure to such therapy, brain starts to ignore these frequencies and your tinnitus loudness reduces. You use the app to first determine the frequency of your tinnitus, then listen to your usual music. Best results are achieved by listening to 60 minutes or more per day. The technology is based on original research by Hidehiko Okamoto, Henning Teismann, Christo Pantev and Wolfgang Stoll, first published in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
