Advanced Brain Technologies: Making Sound Brain Fitness Universally Attainable

Research has shown that music has a profound effect on your body and psyche. In fact, there’s a growing field of health care known as music therapy, which uses music to heal. Those who practice music therapy are finding a benefit in using music to help cancer patients, children with ADD, and others, and even hospitals are beginning to use music and music therapy to help with pain management, to help ward off depression, to promote movement, to calm patients, to ease muscle tension, and for many other benefits that music and music therapy can bring. This is not surprising, as music affects the body and mind in many powerful ways.

In-ceiling radios can be used to play therapeutic sounds and music in any selected area where human action and interaction happens. Applications can be made in the home, workspace, and in a medical or clinical facility.

Advanced Brain Technologies or ABT, is a company that creates innovative, evidenced-based solutions in the field of sound brain fitness. One of their products is called The Listening Program® (TLP) which is a music listening therapy, that provides engaging brain stimulation to improve performance in school, work and life.  This product has a feature called iListen® which is TLP Level One on an iPod produced with un-compressed, copy protected audio. iListen comes preloaded with TLP Level One and a library of music from the Sound Health® collection. You can share the benefits of this product with your whole household or workforce or with medical patients by playing the contents via in-ceiling radios.

KBSOUND® Premium is a quality in-ceiling radio that has a mini-jack audio to connect your iPod, Blackberry or any other audio source. You can play TLP’s iListen through the KBSOUND® Premium and share the benefits of music therapy to more people.

The Listening Program combines decades of clinical research in several fields, including neurology, physiology, psycho-acoustics, auditory processing, music theory and more. Certain brands, or zones, of sound frequencies affect different abilities.          

TLP is designed to address these zones, systematically providing auditory stimulation that, when customized for listeners by ABT Providers, can help improve their ability to function in a number of ways.

Personifying An Elegant Classic: Nicole Kidman for OMEGA

An important factor to achieve a successful celebrity endorsement is the congruence between the celebrity endorser and the endorsed products. In fact, it is important that the customer perceives a link between the ambassador, their life style and the product. It is also suggested that the source credibility, that is the positive characteristic of the ambassador, is an important factor of success.

Beauty. Pleasure. Victory—the three prominent attributes of the OMEGA watches campaign. It is no wonder why the brand has chosen the elegant Miss Nicole Kidman to be included in the ranks of its prominent brand ambassadors.

When it comes to beauty in face and form, Miss Kidman is an undeniable exemplification. She has graced the cover of countless magazines over her long and illustrious career—setting standards in feminine poise and beauty. Also, she is not just regal in body but in spirit as well—being a tireless campaigner for children’s and women’s rights and is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF Australia and UN Women. The United Nations has also named her a “Citizen of the World”.

Her lifestyle and aura of relaxed luxury exudes that attribute of pleasure. She carries herself in such an unhurried way that it is distinctly noted how she takes pleasure in every single aspect of her life—enjoying it in a steady pace, with poise and grace.

And lastly, on the aspect of victory, Miss Nicole Kidman is certainly no stranger to that word. In 2003, she won an Oscar for her brilliant portrayal of troubled author Virginia Wolf in The Hours and she has been nominated for seven Golden Globes (she won three for her roles in To Die For, Moulin Rouge, and The Hours).

Nicole Kidman touches people’s hearts with everything she does. Since joining OMEGA’s family of brand ambassadors in 2005, Nicole Kidman has figured prominently in the “My Choice” advertising campaign and has made select public appearances on behalf of the company. A notable one of which as at the opening of the OMEGA House in London—where she stood out as the most beautiful piece in a room already filled with intricate art.

Exploring the Benefits of Combining Aromatherapy with Music Therapy

Aromatherapy is the practice of using the natural oils extracted from flowers, bark, stems, leaves, roots or other parts of a plant to enhance psychological and physical wellbeing.

Music therapy is a branch of health care designed to aid physical and emotional health through the use of music. Music can slow the body's physiology and facilitate physical relaxation; it also influences emotions virtually instantaneously, which can help with stress relief as well.

Adding aromatherapy oils to bathwater is one way to experience its health benefits. The aroma created by the diffusing oil stimulates the olfactory sense and enhances circulation and help to bring about physical balance. Installing in-ceiling radios in your bathroom allows you to combine aromatherapy with music therapy.

In-ceiling radios can provide music enhances the effect of aromatherapy, thus your body gets double benefits. How you apply essential, or aromatherapy, oils has an impact on their healing capabilities. Because they are so highly concentrated, it is not often recommended that you apply essential oils in their pure form directly to the skin. You will experience better results if you use small amounts of the oils diluted in water or with a carrier oil or massage lotion.

The inhaled aroma from these "essential" oils is widely believed to stimulate brain function. Essential oils can also be absorbed through the skin, where they travel through the bloodstream and can promote whole-body healing. A form of alternative medicine, aromatherapy is gaining momentum. It is used for a variety of applications, including pain relief, mood enhancement and increased cognitive function.

There are a wide number of essential oils available, each with its own healing properties.

While music therapy is an emerging field, music itself has many benefits for health and stress management, and can be used in daily life to relieve stress and promote wellness. This is not formal music therapy, but it can be effective for stress relief. But certain studies have shown that people who listened to music for an hour each day for a week had improved physical and psychological symptoms compared to those who do not listen to music.

Tumbling Color Wheel: 5 Tips on How to Pick the Right Paint Color for Your Wall

Keeping your home and furniture in good condition may seem to be a difficult task. Patio furniture covers are really great tools in keeping sofas and other sitting fixtures away from dust, molds and anything else that could possibly develop. But what about your walls? How can you take care of them?

Apart from changing the look of a room or a certain area of your home, repainting can also help in keeping the place clean.

If you’re up for the challenge of maintaining the cleanliness of your home while staying in style, here are some tips in choosing the right paint color:

1. Get to know the terminologies used. To get you a head start on this, hue basically refers to the color like green, blue, red or yellow. Saturation on the other hand is the intensity of the color. It is generally defined as light or dark. For example, pink is actually red with lighter saturation. If this color is darkened, you would be able to get deeper hues of red like burgundy. Another important term is intensity which measures the brilliance of a color which is said to be more intense if pure. To illustrate, blue is more intense than blue green since the latter is already a combination of colors.
2. Research on new styles and trends. Though you may come into a home renovation or remodeling project with a clear picture of what you want, you have to make sure that your preferences are feasible. Also, conducting additional research or any further study in general can help you find better options in terms of price bargains or quality of materials to be used. I’m also sure that looking at more inspiration can get you more hyped up for the project which can do wonders for your creativity and resourcefulness.
3. Balance your choices. Make sure that the over all feel that you’d like the room to project with its actual function. Taking note of color temperatures and applying them well can play to your advantage. Would you like a high energy room that can keep up with your kids? Warm colors such as orange and yellow can serve this purpose well. Relaxing spaces could make use of cooler colors such as greens and blues or even neutrals to achieve the desired mood.
4. Consider your lighting resources. It is said that natural lighting allows the truest color of paint to shine through. This means that when painting outdoor spaces, you’ll most definitely get what you see. Lighting fixtures such as incandescent and fluorescent bulbs give a different dimension to your paint. Warm tones and yellows are accentuated by the use of incandescent while blue tones are given off by fluorescent lighting.
5. Test before you go. Painting a room or your entire home can be costly. To avoid mistakes that can drain your budget, it is best to test different paint colors or finishes before settling for one that compliments your lighting, room purpose and over all feel. Haste can usually cause waste so don’t skip this step. A little pre caution can go a long way.

Repainted a room recently?

I’d love to know how it went. Leave me a comment below to share your experiences.

A Timely Invention

An escapement is a device in mechanical watches and clocks that transfers energy to the timekeeping element (the "impulse action") and allows the number of its oscillations to be counted (the "locking action"). The co-axial escapement is a type of modern watch escapement mechanism invented around 1974 and patented in 1980 by English master watchmaker George Daniels. OMEGA watches commercialized the escapement in 1999 when it introduced the first mass-produced watch incorporating the technology.

The OMEGA Co-Axial calibers were built to provide perfect working conditions to the co-Axial escapement which had been introduced in 1999 as the first practical new watch escapement to be invented in some 250 years. The components in OMEGA’s Co-Axial escapement differ considerably from those of the Swiss lever escapement which had long been the industry’s mainstay: it consists of a balance roller carrying a pallet and an impulse pin, an anchor with three pallets, and a three-level coaxial escapement wheel comprising the co-axial wheel, the co-axial pinion and the gearing/transmission pinion, with which it is connected to the intermediary wheel and the gear train.

Also, it is used in conjunction with a free sprung-balance. The timepiece’s rate can be adjusted by modifying the moment of inertia of the balance wheel instead of repeatedly changing the active length of the hairspring. Micro screws embedded in the circular balance wheel make the adjustment. This design improves shock resistance and avoids the disturbances caused by touching the hairspring.

The great inventor of this timely invention, Master Watchmaker George Daniels, ended his time here last year, sometime in October. It is most likely he left this earth knowing he left a lasting legacy in his co-axial escapement invention. In one of his last interviews, he said this:

“When it becomes more widely known to consumers that watches with Co-Axial escapements have better chronometric performance than their counterparts with classic lever escapements and that the Co-Axial watches have longer service intervals, the demand for Co-Axial calibers will accelerate dramatically. But it has another major role: it will extend the popularity of mechanical watches into the 21st century and beyond.” –George Daniels, Master Watchmaker (19 August 1926 – 21 October 2011)

Designing An OMEGA Watch

Anyone who has ever held an authentic OMEGA Watch in their hand would know they are holding a masterpiece. The Art of Watchmaking has always been limited to a brilliant few and exclusive as a passion. However, it seems an enduring and timeless art, because of such strong brands like OMEGA.

OMEGA’s wristwatches have been awarded for their design excellence nearly as often as they have been honored for their accuracy. The watches in OMEGA’s catalogue share a proud design tradition whose roots can be traced back through the brand’s long history. Design excellence has been a defining part of OMEGA from the company’s earliest days.

The first step in designing an OMEGA Watch is DRAWING. Here designers, who present the first drawings to OMEGA’s management, interpret the concept. When a choice is made regarding the main aesthetic aspects, the new OMEGA watch is then created as a 3D model on the computer.  Designers closely work together with engineers to ensure that design concepts are technically plausible; meaning they can actually be made.

In the CASTING stage, a special 3-D printer makes the very first prototype of the watch.  At this stage the design concept is viewed for purposes of execution, the designers and engineers are able to see how to merge aesthetics and functionality. Most of the aesthetic details are defined during this period.

PROTOTYPING is what happens after the casting. This is the next stage in the development, which includes the suppliers because collaboration with them is needed to make decisions on such matters as the choice of materials and the colors to be used for the dial and the hands. Following the agreement of all parties involved, the first prototypes of the watch are then produced and submitted to the management and markets for approval.

Only after the specific movements of the new watch has passed quality control and been thoroughly tested will it be considered approved for production as the FINAL PRODUCT.

Aesthetic inspiration and innovative design are not only reserved for OMEGA’s historic timepieces. These and all the other watches we create are part of a proud design tradition that has been among OMEGA’s defining values since 1848.

The Novelty of SiSoMo

Sometime in 2005, Kevin Roberts, CEO, of Saatchi & Saatchi coined a buzzword that has become a timely addition to the global conversation on the future of ideas—SiSoMo—Sight, Sound, Motion.

The idea was originally developed for inspiring consumers no matter the media. The premise was in a world of increasing media fragmentation; it is becoming harder for brands to make emotional connections with people. Most consumer interaction is templated, robotic, generic, and mass-produced—lacking that “personal connection” factor which in reality is the catalyst of every purchase.

SiSoMo encourages brands to go back to the root of human connection—evoking the emotions; and what better way to do this than to create the ultimate emotional human experience through Sight, Sound, and Motion.

Having in-ceiling radios in your store and home duplicates the SiSoMo experience for your lifestyle and business need. It is a simple way for you to enhance what is already visually rich in your store or home. It also affects the movement of people—music creates motion—people can sway or dance along to the music or be positively affected by up beats.

Applying SiSoMo in your store or home by installing in-ceiling radios infuses that quality of human emotional evocation to that environment. For your store it could mean an increased pleasant experience of your clientele as well as the fostering of genuine relationship between customer and staff, increasing the potential of return or repeat customers and referrals to friends and family. In your home it could mean positively charging the home environment, creating calmness and rest or liveliness and joy—depending on the music you choose to play.

And because in-ceiling radios create that surround-sound quality, this further strengthens the SiSoMo experience in whatever area you choose to apply them.

KBSOUND® speakers are installed flush-mounted in the ceiling cavity. If you want to be discreet and you want more space for your other components, in-ceiling speakers would be ideal for you.  They are perfect for those who want to enjoy quality of sound without thinking of where to put those huge speakers and other home theater components.