Rockifone has released another so-called “digital drug” iPhone App, Binaural Beats (App Store link). 

Binaural beats are illusory “beats” that you can hear when pure tones of slightly different frequency are separately and simultaneously presented to each ear.

It’s an interesting psychoacoustic effect – one that at least some people think can help you do things ranging from concentrating to opening your chakras. Mainstream media has picked up on this so-called “digital drug”, though, and is offering hysterical coverage that recalls the days of Reefer Madness.

Binaural Beats is a free download.

Description:

Binaural beats helps you concentrate, relax or fall asleep by inducing the brain to perceive different brainwave states such as: beta, alpha, theta, delta.

Combining with different nature sounds, you can make your own themes for many purposes such as: Sleep induction, study aid or headache treatment etc. Blocking noise from the outside world, no more distraction!

Features:

• Free combination of binaural beats, background noise and ambient noise to customize your own theme.
• Separately configure the volume of all 3 sound layers. 
• Interval (loop) setting for ambient noise. 
• 6 pieces of high quality stereo background noises and 16 ambient noises. 
• Set ambient noises as loop sound like raining or occasional sounds like thunder or seagulls calling. 
• General volume control in playback window. 
• Programmable application shutdown timer. 
• Sound volume fades out at the end of timer. -
• 7 preset themes with binaural beats: 
  • Pre-sleep induction 
  • Headache killer 
  • Quick relaxation 
  • Study aid 
  • Deep meditation 
  • Memory helper 
  • Busy thinking 
• 6 Background noises: 
  • Autumn Wind 
  • Calm sea 
  • Heavy rain with thunder 
  • Hurricane 
  • Rain forest 
  • Soft tide 
• 16 Ambient Noises: Birds; Bubbles; Campfire; Chimes; Clock; Corbie; Creek; Crickets; Owl; Rain; Rain (heavy); River; Seagulls; Thunder; Waterfall; Wind in trees 
• 9 Binaural tones: Deep dreamless sleep, Dream creation, Deep meditation, Memory helper, Lullaby, Headache killer, Relaxation, Concentration, Busy thinking.

Note: 

• This application requires stereo headphones to take effect.
• It’s dangerous to use the application while driving drowsy.

How it works:

Binaural beats may influence functions of the brain besides those related to hearing. This phenomenon is called frequency following response. The concept is that if one receives a stimulus with a frequency in the range of brain waves, the predominant brain wave frequency is said to be likely to move towards the frequency of the stimulus (a process called entrainment). In addition, binaural beats have been credibly documented to relate to both spatial perception & stereo auditory recognition, and , according to the frequency following response, activation of various sites in the brain.