Cove neckband vibrates behind your ears to reduce stress
The wearable uses mechanical stimulation behind your ears to reduce anxiety.
There are a number of devices that promise to work magic on our brains, reducing stress and helping us get to sleep each night. The latest on the scene is Cove, from Feelmore Labs, a neckband that hooks over your ears to deliver vibration to your mastoid. Wear this for 20 minutes a day, so says the company, and you’ll find yourself more resilient to stress and find it easier to relax in the run-up to bedtime.
Essentially, Cove applies “gentle and silent” vibrations to the skin behind your ears which, according to the studies, harnesses the benefits of affective touch. Rather than electric shocks, even at low power, this mechanical stimulation is thought to be affective yet a lot less work. In behind-the-scenes trials, researchers found that people who self-reported anxiety symptoms saw a decrease over a four-week period.
The hardware is, naturally, paired with a smartphone app for iOS and Android that can be used to track your progress. In the future, you’ll also be able to develop “stress measurements” to better identify how stressed you are, or can be, and look for ways of moderating it. In the materials the company supplied, it looks as if you don’t need to be sat quietly in a dark room while your Cove is running. Instead, you can hang out at work, on a video call or doing exercise while the device works its apparent magic on your mastoid.
If you’re the sort who spends their days with an eye on the fashion world, then the name of Feelmore’s founder may be familiar. Francois Kress has previously been CEO at brands like Carolina Herrera, Stuart Weitzman, Prada and Bulgari as well as LVMH. He’s joined in this venture by a coterie of neuroscientists who believe that there is plenty of positives to this sort of neural stimulation for better mental health.
Naturally, as with any piece of technology like this, we can’t be certain of its effectiveness until there’s been a lot more research done. And, of course, we haven’t touched or used the gear ourselves, so it’s hard to say yet if it’s in any way effective. We’ll hopefully learn more when Cove hits store shelves this fall, for an as-yet undisclosed price.
