What is Doppel and how might it help the elderly and people with Dementia
Do you care for someone with Dementia who may be a suitable trialist for doppel? If so please contact me. I am going to be testing one too, so look out for my follow up article to this one where I shall be reviewing it.
Doppel looks like a watch but beneath the stylish looking case is a host of medically based technology designed to help regulate the the wearers pulse and in turn their movement rate. I was especially interested to know whether doppel had been tested on anyone living with Dementia who suffers from poor sleep or aggitation.
Here is a short video followed by an article from doppel explaining its use and the thinking behind it.
doppel is a wearable, but unlike monitoring bands or smartwatches, it works with your sense of touch and your body’s natural response to rhythm to keep you calm and focused. doppel changes how you feel. doppel creates a rhythmic pulse that you feel on the inside of your wrist as a heartbeat like vibration.
Like listening to music, a fast rhythm helps you to feel more alert, a slower rhythm is calming. The team behind doppel met at Imperial College London in 2012 and have spent the past four years working on technology inspired by psychophysiology – the study of the relationship between the mind and the body. doppel is their first product.
Its award-winning technology has been independently shown to double focus in controlled scientific tests run by the Royal Holloway University London. doppel has also been trialled by hundreds of people who have used it to focus at work, to stay calm in stressful situations, to wind down to go to sleep, and much more. doppel’s CEO, former theoretical physicist Dr Fotini Markopoulou, explains: “Our brains and bodiesrespond naturally to rhythm. This can be a biological rhythm, for example, the heartbeats of a mother and baby willsynchronise with one another when they interact closely. But we also respond to external rhythms.
The tempo of a song can naturally alter our breathing rate and heart rate. “Ultimately doppel is active, not passive. It goes beyond monitoring and doessomething for you. Within a minute or two of use, you feel the change.
You don’t need to see a graph for it to work. You don’t need to download your data for it to change your day.” “Of course a monitoring band can be useful for certain things. Athletes value fitness data and patients may want to share certain medical data with their doctor. But for most of us our true goals, to live healthier, be happier with our families, to feel lessstressed after work, do not fit in graphs.”
In 2015 the team raised over £100,000 ($150,000) in a successful crowdfunding campaign and have spent the past year finalising the design.
doppel works with a companion app but once set you can leave your phone behind. Change to the slower rhythm by stroking the device or give it a short sharp tap to feel the faster beat kick in. The app stores your personal rhythms, each one linked to your own resting heart rate, and you can upload new pairs at any time. Fotini continues: “Most of us know that yoga or meditation can be relaxing but many of us don’t have the time.
A coffee will keep you going in the afternoon but not for long, and the caffeine willstill be in your body when you’re trying to sleep later on. doppel is different, it’s a natural and simple solution.” doppel is currently available to pre-order with the product officially launching in October.
About doppel Website: www.doppel.london Facebook: www.facebook.com/doppelLDN Twitter: @doppelLDN Instragram: @doppel.london For more information, or to try doppel, please contact Georgina Orso, Head of Marketing, via georgina@doppel.london or info@doppel.london
