Technical Field

[001] The present invention relates to a medical intervention for mental ill-health symptomology, and particularly to treating symptomology associated with an emerging mood and/or sleep disorder.

Background

[002] There are a wide range of intervention and treatment options available when it comes to addressing mental ill-health symptoms associated with a mood disorder such as anxiety or depression. Such interventions and treatments may include support networks and support services, as well as clinical options such as psychological therapies and/or pharmaceutical medications. The different options for interventions and treatments have different costs, availability and efficacy for an individual. Some clinical treatments, such a psychotherapy, may require an initial referral from a general practitioner for an appointment with a clinical psychologist and the clinical psychologist may not be available on demand or at short notice. Furthermore, prior to clinical treatment, the referring general practitioner and/or clinician may be required to first give a mental health diagnosis. In some instances, severity of the mental health disorder diagnosis may mean that pharmaceutical medications are required, in addition to other intervention and treatment options such as psychotherapy.

[003] A binaural beat percept is an auditory illusion produced by the brain when a listener encounters two disparate auditory frequencies presented separately to each ear. A binaural beat percept may be elicited by presenting two pure-tone sine waves to an individual through headphones, with one frequency presented to the right ear and a different frequency presented to the left ear. For example, the right ear may hear a sine wave with a 400Hz frequency and the left ear may hear a sine wave with a 410Hz frequency. In the absence of any additional auditory input, the individual may hear a binaural beat with a frequency equal to a difference between the two tones, 10Hz in the case of the example.

[004] Unlike normal interference patterns that produce a beat, the two frequencies of a binaural beat percept do not come into contact with each other. That is, the two frequencies are not interacting with each other before being heard by a listener. Instead, the binaural beat percept is an auditory illusion perceived when two different wave forms are presented to a listener dichotically, i.e., simultaneously and separately to the left and right ear. Summary

[005] One embodiment includes a method of medical intervention for reducing mental ill- health symptomology, the method comprising: receiving an item of personal data for a user; selecting an audio file from a plurality of audio files, each of the plurality of audio files being encoded with a different frequency, the audio file being selected according to the frequency using the item of personal data; and providing an intervention track based on the selected audio file to the user for playback to reduce the mental ill-health symptoms.

[006] In one embodiment, each of the plurality of audio files are encoded with a binaural beat and the frequency is a binaural beat base frequency.

[007] In one embodiment, the item of personal data is a date of birth.

[008] In one embodiment, the item of personal data is a month of birth month for the user.

[009] In one embodiment, the item of personal data is a year of birth for the user.

[010] In one embodiment the personal data is non-biosignal data.

[Oil] In one embodiment the a

[012] In one embodiment, the selected audio file is an intermediate intervention track and is combined with an additional music track to produce the intervention track.

[013] In one embodiment, the personal data is mapped to a single digit selection value.

[014] In one embodiment, the single digit selection value is determined using an integer splitting technique.

[015] In one embodiment, the frequency for at least one of the plurality of audio files is based on a frequency of a solar body.

[016] In one embodiment, each of the plurality of audio files is based on a frequency of a solar body.

[017] One embodiment includes a system of medical intervention for reducing mental ill- health symptomology, the system comprising a processing system configured to: receive an item of personal data for a user; select an audio file from a plurality of audio files, each of the plurality of audio files being encoded with a different frequency, the audio file being selected according to the frequency using the item of personal data; and provide an intervention track based on the selected audio file to the user for playback to reduce mental ill-health symptomology.

[018] In one embodiment, each of the plurality of audio files are encoded with a binaural beat and the frequency is a binaural beat base frequency.

[019] In one embodiment, the item of personal data is a date of birth.

[020] In one embodiment, the item of personal data is a month of birth month for the user.

[021] In one embodiment, the item of personal data is a year of birth for the user.

[022] In one embodiment the a

[023] In one embodiment the personal data is non-biosignal data.

[024] In one embodiment, the selected audio file is an intermediate intervention track and is combined with an additional music track to produce the intervention track.

[025] In one embodiment, the personal data is mapped to a single digit selection value.

[026] In one embodiment, the single digit selection value is determined using an integer splitting technique.

[027] In one embodiment, the frequency for at least one of the plurality of audio files is based on a frequency of a solar body.

[028] In one embodiment, each of the plurality of audio files is based on a frequency of a solar body.

Brief Description of Figures

[029] At least one embodiment of the present invention is described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures.

[030] Fig. 1 illustrates a functional block diagram of an example processing system that can be utilised to embody or give effect to a particular embodiment;

[031] Fig. 2 illustrates an example network infrastructure that can be utilised to embody or give effect to a particular embodiment; [032] Fig. 3 illustrates a representation of a binaural beat percept according to one embodiment;

[033] Fig. 4 illustrates a method of intervention track delivery according to one embodiment;

[034] Fig. 5 illustrates a method of intermediate intervention track generation according to one embodiment; and

[035] Fig. 6 illustrates an intervention treatment device according to one embodiment.

Detailed Description

[036] Disclosed is an intervention that may reduce mental ill-health symptomology, and particularly to treating symptomology associated with emerging mood disorders such as anxiety and depression using a binaural beat. Examples of symptomology presenting as an emerging mood disorders may include insomnia, concentration issues, anxiety, distress, hyper vigilance, mental wellness, physiological and psychological distress presenting as pain. The intervention may treat sleep disorders, such as insomnia, as well as improve sleep quality, which may be presentations of mood disorders such as anxiety and depression.

[037] The intervention may be a method where an item of personal data for a user is received. The item may be used to select an audio file from a plurality of audio files. Each of the plurality of audio files is encoded with a different frequency. The audio file is selected according to the frequency using the item of personal data. The user may then listen to the audio file that encodes a binaural beat to reduce the mental ill-health symptoms. Each of the audio files may be encoded with a binaural beat and the frequency is a binaural beat frequency. The personal data is non-biosignal data for an individual, where a biosignal is a measured and monitored signal from a person, such as an Electrocardiogram (ECG) or galvanic skin response. The audio file may be selected to assist in changing an emotional state of the person. The use of personal data can mean the audio file is selected independent of the emotional state of the person. That is, the audio file is not selected based on a current emotional state of the person. The audio file may be selected to assist in shifting the affective emotional states of the person, representative of underlying biological presentations of distress such as anxiety and hypervigilance impacting the central nervous system. General mood differs from trait-like emotional states, such as anxiety and distress - where mood can be changed momentarily, but trait-like emotional states require intervention for changes to occur.

[038] A representation of a binaural beat system is shown in Fig. 3. A user 310 is listening to two audio channels, a right audio track 320 and a left audio track 330. Each of the two channels play audio containing a sine wave. However, the sine wave for each channel has a different frequency. For example, the right audio track 320 may be 380Hz and the left audio track 330 may be 360Hz. Such a binaural beat playback has a binaural beat base frequency of 360Hz, the lowest of the two frequencies, and a binaural beat frequency of 20Hz, being the difference between the right audio track 320 and the left audio track 330.

[039] The right audio track 320 and the left audio track 330 are provided to the user 310 using headphones, or other audio playback system, that keeps the right audio track 320 and the left audio track 330 separate. As the two channels are separate, the waveforms do not interact before reaching the user 310. The binaural beat frequency is the frequency that the user 310 will hear from the system, even though the right audio track 320 and the left audio track 330 have not combined before being heard by the user 310.

[040] A particular embodiment of the present invention can be realised using a processing system, an example of which is shown in Fig. 1. In particular, the processing system 100 generally includes at least one processor 102, or processing unit or plurality of processors, memory 104, at least one input device 106 and at least one output device 108, coupled together via a bus or group of buses 110. In certain embodiments, input device 106 and output device 108 could be the same device. An interface 112 can also be provided for coupling the processing system 100 to one or more peripheral devices, for example interface 112 could be a PCI card or PC card. At least one storage device 114 which houses at least one database 116 can also be provided. The memory 104 can be any form of memory device, for example, volatile or non-volatile memory, solid state storage devices, magnetic devices, etc. The processor 102 could include more than one distinct processing device, for example to handle different functions within the processing system 100.

[041] Input device 106 receives input data 118 and can include, for example, a keyboard, a pointer device such as a pen-like device or a mouse, audio receiving device for voice controlled activation such as a microphone, data receiver or antenna such as a modem or wireless data adaptor, data acquisition card, etc. Input data 118 could come from different sources, for example keyboard instructions in conjunction with data received via a network. Output device 108 produces or generates output data 120 and can include, for example, a display device or monitor in which case output data 120 is visual, a printer in which case output data 120 is printed, a port for example a USB port, a peripheral component adaptor, a data transmitter or antenna such as a modem or wireless network adaptor, etc. Output data 120 could be distinct and derived from different output devices, for example a visual display on a monitor in conjunction with data transmitted to a network. A user could view data output, or an interpretation of the data output, on, for example, a monitor or using a printer. The storage device 114 can be any form of data or information storage means, for example, volatile or non-volatile memory, solid state storage devices, magnetic devices, etc.

[042] In use, the processing system 100 is adapted to allow data or information to be stored in and/or retrieved from, via wired or wireless communication means, the at least one database 116. The interface 112 may allow wired and/or wireless communication between the processing unit 102 and peripheral components that may serve a specialised purpose. The processor 102 receives instructions as input data 118 via input device 106 and can display processed results or other output to a user by utilising output device 108. More than one input device 106 and/or output device 108 can be provided. It should be appreciated that the processing system 100 may be any form of terminal, server, specialised hardware, or the like.

[043] The processing system 100 may be a part of a networked communications system 200, as shown in Fig. 2. Processing system 100 could connect to network 202, for example the Internet or a WAN. Input data 118 and output data 120 could be communicated to other devices via network 202. Other terminals, for example, thin client 204, further processing systems 206 and 208, notebook computer 210, mainframe computer 212, PDA 214, penbased computer or tablet 216, server 218, etc., can be connected to network 202. A large variety of other types of terminals or configurations could be utilised. The transfer of information and/or data over network 202 can be achieved using wired communications means 220 or wireless communications means 222. Server 218 can facilitate the transfer of data between network 202 and one or more databases 224. Server 218 and one or more databases 224 provide an example of an information source.

[044] Other networks may communicate with network 202. For example, telecommunications network 230 could facilitate the transfer of data between network 202 and mobile, cellular telephone or smartphone 232 or a PDA-type device 234, by utilising wireless communication means 236 and receiving/transmitting station 238. Satellite communications network 240 could communicate with satellite signal receiver 242 which receives data signals from satellite 244 which in turn is in remote communication with satellite signal transmitter 246. Terminals, for example further processing system 248, notebook computer 250 or satellite telephone 252, can thereby communicate with network 202. A local network 260, which for example may be a private network, LAN, etc., may also be connected to network 202. For example, network 202 could be connected with ethemet 262 which connects terminals 264, server 266 which controls the transfer of data to and/or from database 268, and printer 270. Various other types of networks could be utilised.

[045] The processing system 100 is adapted to communicate with other terminals, for example further processing systems 206, 208, by sending and receiving data, 118, 120, to and from the network 202, thereby facilitating possible communication with other components of the networked communications system 200.

[046] Thus, for example, the networks 202, 230, 240 may form part of, or be connected to, the Internet, in which case, the terminals 206, 212, 218, for example, may be web servers, Internet terminals or the like. The networks 202, 230, 240, 260 may be or form part of other communication networks, such as LAN, WAN, ethernet, token ring, FDDI ring, star, etc., networks, or mobile telephone networks, such as GSM, CDMA, 4G, 5G etc., networks, and may be wholly or partially wired, including for example optical fibre, or wireless networks, depending on a particular implementation.

[047] An intervention track delivery method 400 will now be described in relation to Fig. 4. The intervention track delivery method 400 may be performed on one or more computers, such as the processing system 100, and communicate over a network such as network 202. The method 400 takes as input personal data about a user and produces an intervention track containing a binaural beat that, when listened to by a user with headphones, may assist in the intervention of mental health disorders, at times, presenting with disruption to circadian rhythms (sleep) where sleep disorders can emerge. The binaural beat in the intervention track has a binaural beat frequency that is selected according to personal data about the end user of the intervention track.

[048] The intervention track delivery method 400 starts with a receive personal data step 410 where the processing system 100 receives personal data for an end user, or listener, of an intervention track. The personal data may be entered into the processing system 100 using a graphical user interface attached to the processing system 100. The personal data may also be associated with a profile of the end user and retrieved by the processing system 100. In some circumstances, a new profile may be created for a new end user to store the personal data for later use.

[049] The personal data may be any information that is related to the end user of the system. Some examples of personal data include the day of the month that the end user was born, the month of birth for the end user, the year of birth for the end user. Personal data may also include information such as gender, height, weight, or average heart rate variability of the end user, where the average heart rate variability is determined by an age and gender of the user and is not measure for the user. The personal data is non-biosignal data that may be constant, in the case of birthdate information, or substantially constant in the case of height or weight.

[050] Next, a generate selection value step 420 takes the personal data and converts a value of the personal data to a selection value. The selection value is a number that matches a number of options, or selections, that are available. Each of the options is an intermediate intervention track with a different binaural beat base frequency. In one example there may be five binaural beat base frequencies 410, 420, 430, 440 and 450Hz. Each of the binaural beat base frequencies have a binaural beat frequency, such as 5Hz, added to create a second channel. The end result is five intermediate intervention tracks with left, right frequencies of (410, 415), (420, 425), (430, 435), (440, 445) or (450,455) Hz. In such an example, the first option has a left channel frequency of 410Hz and a right channel frequency of 415Hz and a binaural beat frequency of 5Hz.

[051] In an alternative example, the selection value may be used to select the binaural beat frequency instead of the binaural beat base frequency. In one such an example there are five binaural beat frequencies that may be used, 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50Hz. Each of the binaural beat frequencies are combined with a binaural beat base frequency, such as 400Hz. The end result is five intermediate intervention tracks with left, right frequencies of (400, 410), (400, 420), (400, 430), (400, 440) or (400, 450) Hz. In such an example, the first option has a left channel frequency of 400Hz and a right channel frequency of 410Hz and a binaural beat frequency of 10Hz.

[052] The conversion of the personal data to a selection value may take many forms. In one example, the selection value is determined by dividing the value of the personal data by the number of options and using the remainder to select the intermediate intervention track. If the remainder is zero, then the selection value may be set to the maximum selection value. Alternatively, an integer splitting technique may be used if there are nine options. The integer splitting technique works by splitting the value of the personal data into separate integers then adding each of the integers together. If the sum of the integers is 9 or less, then the sum may be used as the selection value. If the sum is two digits or more, then the process may be repeated until a value between 1 and 9 is determined. For example, if the day component of the date of birth is used the selection value may be determined as follows. For a person born on the 24 of April, the value of the personal data is 24. The value 24 is split into two integers, 2 and 4, then added together to get a value of 6. For a height of 185cm the process is to split the value into three integers 1, 8 and 5. The sum of the three integers is 14. As 14 is more than 9 then the value is split into two integers 1 and 4. The sum of the two integers is 5 which may be used as the selection value.

[053] Another alternative is to use a lookup table where individual values, or a range of values, are mapped to a selection value. In such an example, the look up table may have each whole unit of the personal data mapped to a value that cycles through the possible options, e.g. 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1,2, 3,... and so on. Alternatively, the look up table may increment the selection value every time that the personal data value increases by a set value. In one example, every time the personal data value increases by 5 the selection value is incremented. When the selection reaches the maximum value then the selection value may be reset to start the sequence again.

[054] The selection value is used to select an intermediate intervention track at a select track step 430. After the generate selection value step 420 the selection value has a value that is mapped to one of the intermediate intervention tracks and the intermediate intervention track with a corresponding value is selected. Generation of the intermediate intervention tracks will be described below in relation to Fig. 5.

[055] In one embodiment, the intermediate intervention track is used as the intervention track without further modification. However, in some embodiments, an optional add music step 440 may add music, or additional audio information, to the track. The intermediate intervention track and the music may be mixed together using different mixing ratios. In one example the intermediate intervention track and the music may be mixed with equal volume. In another example, the intermediate intervention track may be mixed louder than the music. Alternatively, the music may be louder than the intermediate intervention track, however if the music is too loud then the intermediate intervention track may be too quiet and less effective. A ratio of a volume of the intervention track to a volume of the additional audio information may be set by a user through a user interface, to provide an adjustable mixing volume ratio. In one example, the ratio may be automatically adjust based on a time of day, with sleep hours having a lower mix of the additional audio information than waking hours.

[056] The type of music selected may have a target tempo. For example, the music may have a specific tempo of 60 beats per minute, a range of 60 to 80 beats per minute or more than 60 beats per minute. Non-music tracks may also be used, such as soundtracks of natural sounds like ocean waves on a beach or the sound made by a tree in a gentle breeze. Other sounds tracks may be use from more urban environments such as ambient sounds from a coffee shop. Any music or non-musical track may be tested to ensure that the track does not contain frequencies that may interfere with the intermediate intervention track. One technique is to examine a frequency spectrum of the track and check levels of the frequencies used for the intermediate intervention track. If interfering frequencies are found, then the track may be filtered to remove the clashing frequencies or an alternative track may be used.

[057] Next, a send intervention track step 450 maybe executed by the processing system 100. If the intervention track delivery method 400 is executed using a server client computer arrangement, the send intervention track step 450 may transmit the intervention track from the server to the client. Such an approach may occur with a web-based delivery system where the intervention track is prepared on a server and delivered to an end user device such as computer, tablet or smartphone. The end user may listen to the intervention track at a play intervention track step 460. In one arrangement of the intervention track delivery method 400, all the steps may be executed on a single device operated by the user. For example, the end user may install an application on a smartphone to execute the intervention track delivery method 400 and the play intervention track step 460 downloaded from a server.

[058] An intermediate intervention track generation method 500 will now be described in relation to Fig. 5. The intermediate intervention track generation method 500 may be performed on one or more computers, such as the processing system 100, and communicate over a network such as network 202. The method 500 takes as input a binaural beat frequency, a binaural beat base frequency, and a track length to generate an intermediate intervention track that may be used in the intervention track delivery method 400 described above. Typically, the intermediate intervention track generation method 500 may be performed once and the resulting intermediate intervention tracks stored for later use. The intermediate intervention track generation method 500 generates a single intermediate intervention track and may be repeated to generate multiple tracks. The binaural beat frequency and the binaural beat base frequency are values that are selected be a developer.

[059] The intermediate intervention track generation method 500 shows two channels, a left channel 510 and a right channel 550. As described above, the binaural beat percept is generated when a listener hears two different frequencies in each ear without any interference between the left and the right channels. One example of such an environment occurs when listening to headphones. For the left channel 510, a left channel waveform 520 is produced by adding the binaural beat base frequency and the binaural beat frequency together. If the binaural beat base frequency is 400Hz and the binaural beat frequency is 50Hz, then the waveform will have a frequency of 450Hz. For the right channel 550 a right channel waveform 560 is produced by generating, or selecting, a waveform with the binaural beat base frequency only. In the present example the right channel 550 will have a frequency of 400Hz. The length, or play time duration, of the left channel waveform 520 and right channel waveform 560 is set by the track length. In some embodiments, the intermediate intervention track may have a track length determined by the time taken for the left channel waveform 520 and the right channel waveform 560 to have phases that match the phases at a start of the intermediate intervention track. That is, the phase of the left channel waveform 520 wave and the phase of the right channel waveform 560 are the same at the start and the end of the track. For example, if the two tracks have zero phase at the start of the intermediate intervention track, the intermediate intervention track may end when both tracks have a zero phase again. The end of the track may be any time that the phases match, such as the first, second or third time. This allows the intermediate intervention track to be looped, with a seamless listening experience provided to the user as there is not audible join between a start and end of the intermediate intervention track. Looping the intermediate intervention track allows creation of tracks with any required length.

[060] The left channel 510 and the right channel 550 are stored at a store track step 590. In the example, a 450Hz waveform is stored for the left channel 510 and a 400Hz waveform is stored for the right channel 550. The waveform is typically a sine wave, which includes approximations of a sine wave.

[061] An intervention treatment device 600 will now be described in relation to Fig. 6. The intervention treatment device 600 has an audio delivery system 610 which is typically a set of headphones for the user to wear. The audio delivery system 610 may be connected, in a wired or wireless manner, to a playback device 620 which may be a device such as a mobile phone, portable music player, or a computer. The playback device 620 includes an intervention track generator 630 that generates an intervention track in a manner as described above. Output from the intervention track generator 630 may be stored at am intervention track storage 640 such as a solid state memory device or other storage system. The intervention tracks, from either the intervention track generator 630 or the intervention track storage 640, may be turned into a suitable signal for the audio delivery system 610 at a playback generator 650. The playback device 620 may also have a user interface 660 that allows the user to change settings and interact with the playback device 620. Examples of interactions are described above and include entering personal data, changing volume for the audio delivery system 610, play/pause/stop commands, selecting additional audio information to mix with the intervention track, selecting the mixing volume ratio between the intervention track and the additional audio information, and setting sleeping hours.

[062] The playback device 620 may be a single device or may be two or more devices that operate together to act as the playback device 620. For example, the intervention track generator 630 and the intervention track storage 640 may be located on a remote server with the track streamed to a local device that has the playback generator 650. The user interface 660 may be implemented as a web page on another remote server in communication with the other devices. In one example, the audio delivery system 610 and the playback device 620 are a single device, built in to the headphones.

[063] In one example, the intervention track may be dynamically generated using the binaural beat base frequency and the binaural beat frequency. In such an example, the intervention track may still be selected from two or more intervention tracks. The selection is for audio with the binaural beat base frequency and the binaural beat frequency with which the intervention track is to be generated. In such an example, the intervention track may be referred to as a pre-generation audio track as the audio track is selected in a pre-generation state and then generated from the binaural beat base frequency and the binaural beat frequency.

[064] In one example, the binaural beat base frequency may be 400Hz and the binaural beat frequency is selected using a date of birth, i.e., the day of the month that the end user was born, as the personal data. Date of birth is then converted to a selection value between 1 and 9 using one of the techniques described above in relation to the generate selection value step 420 of Fig. 4, such as the integer splitting technique. The selection value is used to select one of nine intermediate intervention tracks generated using values of the Planetary Frequencies, as determined by Hans Cousto, as the binaural beat frequency. The Planetary Frequencies are frequencies for solar bodies as listed in table 1, along with the selection value and the frequency used as the binaural beat frequency.

Table 1

[065] In one example, for an end user bom on the 23 ^rd of the month, the selection value will be five using the integer splitting technique, determined by adding 2 and 3 together. The result is a binaural beat frequency of 144.72Hz. With a binaural beat base frequency of 400Hz, the result is an intermediate intervention track with one audio channel having a sine wave with 400Hz and the other audio channel having a sine wave of 544.72Hz. The intermediate intervention track may be combined with a music track to generate an intervention track for the end user.

[066] In another example, the binaural beat base frequency may be selected using the date of birth as the personal data, instead of selecting the binaural beat frequency. The date of birth may be converted to a selection value between 1 and 9 using one of the techniques described above, such as the integer splitting technique. The selection value is used to select one of nine intermediate intervention tracks generated using values of the Planetary Frequencies as the binaural beat base frequency. The binaural beat frequency may be the same for all of the tracks, for example 5Hz. In one such example, a person born on the 3rd of lanuary will have a selection value of 3. The binaural beat base frequency will be 221.23Hz. The result may be an intermediate intervention track with one channel having a sine wave of 221.23Hz and the other channel having sine wave of 226.23Hz. In one example the binaural beat frequency may be a value less than 6Hz.

[067] While the use of headphones has been detailed above, other audio systems may be used to play back the intervention track. For the audio system to produce the binaural beat percept effectively it is important that the left channel and the right channel audio are kept separate, i.e., the two channels are not allowed to mix, before being received by the user or listener. While some mixing of the left and the right tracks may be acceptable, the binaural beat percept of the intervention track will be more effective if the left and right channels remain separate. The term headphones may include devices such as in ear monitors, ear buds, canal phones, open ear headsets and close ear headsets.

[068] The above examples may describe an intervention track, or an intermediate intervention track, with a right channel, or a left channel, having a higher frequency. It is also possible to swap the two channels around. For example, a binaural beat frequency of 100Hz may be encoded on a binaural beat base frequency of 450Hz. The left channel may have a 450Hz wave encoded and the right channel may have 550Hz encoded. Alternatively, the left channel may have 550Hz encoded and the right channel may have 450Hz encoded. Both configurations are configured according to the described binaural beat frequency and the binaural beat base frequency.

[069] The binaural beat percept described above uses a sine wave to encode the waveforms for the left and the right channels. The sine wave may be a suitable approximation to a pure sine wave. Alternative waveforms may also be used with waveforms that are repetitive or that variable.

[070] While the described arrangements have the binaural beat frequency added to the binaural beat base frequency, other alternatives are possible. The binaural beat base frequency may alternatively be the average of the left and the right audio channels. A first audio channel may be encoded with the binaural beat base frequency and subtract half the binaural beat frequency. A second audio channel may be encoded with a binaural beat base frequency and add half the binaural beat frequency. If the binaural beat base frequency is 400Hz and the binaural beat frequency is 20Hz, then one audio channel will have a sine wave of 390Hz and the other audio channel will have a sine wave of 410Hz. The average is 400Hz, the binaural beat base frequency, and the difference between the two channels is 20Hz, the binaural beat frequency. Alternatively, the binaural beat base frequency may be the higher of the two frequencies with the binaural beat frequency subtracted from the binaural beat base frequency. In the above example, the result would be one channel having a waveform at 400Hz and the other channel having a waveform at 380Hz.

[071] Binaural beat auditory stimulation, as a brain entrainment, is an accessible, safe, inexpensive and non-invasive technology, for which there may be some benefit for mental health disorders and may prevent mental ill-health. The described approach allows for a binaural beat intervention tailored specifically for an end user that may provide increased effectiveness for a user. The user may also have quick and effective access to the tailored binaural beat intervention through the use of a smart phone, tablet, computer or other computing device. Intervention tracks may be accessed over the internet when the computing device is connected to a suitable internet access point. Further, the intervention tracks may use a variety of different music tracks to provide a user of different audio tracks that may provide a benefit of having a binaural beat encoded within.

[072] A randomised, control trial of one embodiment of the described intervention was conducted on a non-clinical population of 42 people. The participants were tested for anxiety and depression using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) as well as the Insomnia Severity Index. Participants were tested pre and post intervention, with the trial split into a group receiving the intervention and a second group receiving a placebo. The placebo was binaural beat audio with a random, non-personalised binaural beat frequency.

[073] By Type (Mean scores)

[074] Kessler Anxiety and Depression (K10) Score - PRE INTERVENTION

[075] The Insomnia Severity Index (Sleep) - PRE INTERVENTION

[076] Kessler Anxiety and Depression (K10) Score - POST INTERVENTION

[077] The Insomnia Severity Index (Sleep) - POST INTERVENTION

[078] Changes K10

[079] Changes Sleep

[080] OLS Regression

081] The various embodiments described above may be combined in various ways. For example, various embodiments described above in relation to the treatment track delivery method 400, the intermediate treatment track generation method 500 and the intervention treatment device 600 may be combined.

[082] The reference in this specification to any prior publication (or information derived from the prior publication), or to any matter which is known, is not, and should not be taken as an acknowledgment or admission or any form of suggestion that the prior publication (or information derived from the prior publication) or known matter forms part of the common general knowledge in the field of endeavour to which this specification relates.

[083] Throughout this specification and the claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", and variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or step or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or step or group of integers or steps.