Activity · Interactive
Birds land around you in your own room, and every bird sings your tinnitus tone. You look, listen and set them free one by one. Ten minutes a day, and your brain learns this sound is nothing to raise the alarm about.
Interactive · 10 minutesCatch the Tone is the active exercise in Freequency. Your phone or tablet becomes a window onto your own room, using augmented reality. In it, a bird appears carrying your tinnitus tone. Thanks to spatial audio you hear exactly where it is: left, right, behind you or above you. You turn toward it, find it and tap the cage to set it free. Then it lands somewhere new and the search starts again.
In ten minutes you do exactly what the science recommends: you deliberately seek out your own sound, in a setting that is safe and even a little playful. Your attention goes not to the ringing itself, but to the bird carrying it. Session after session your brain learns the sound is not a threat, and it can fade into the background more and more often.
How it works
A session takes ten minutes and runs the same way every time. Nothing to set up: your own tone is ready to go.
Put in your earbuds
Spatial audio does not work without earbuds or headphones. The app shows whether they are connected before you begin, and Professor Toon briefly explains what you are about to do.
Look around
Point your camera at your room. The first bird lands right in front of you, so you see how it works straight away. After that it picks a new spot around you every time.
Follow the sound
Every bird sings your tinnitus tone, right from the spot where it sits. Listen for where the sound is coming from and turn toward it until the bird is in view.
Set it free
Tap the cage and the bird flies off. If you like, a short chirp plays as it goes. Your counter goes up and the next bird is already landing somewhere else.
Finish with the check-in
After ten minutes you have reached your personal goal. Keep playing a little longer or stop right away. Then log how you feel with the flower check-in, so your journal keeps growing.
The science
In Catch the Tone you actively search for the source of a sound and identify it. Research calls this auditory object identification, and this kind of training can reduce the perception of tinnitus. At the same time you expose yourself to your own tone in a setting that is anything but threatening. That is exactly what exposure therapy does, the treatment recommended in the European guideline for tinnitus.
Your way
Under Accessibility in the app you will find four switches made for Catch the Tone. Turn on what helps you, and leave off what distracts you.
Receive hints
Professor Toon sends you short messages during the game: how to get started, a word of encouragement after a few birds and a heads-up in the final minutes.
Improve visibility
During your first five sessions a visual aid around the bird shows where it sits. With this setting, that aid stays on for good.
Fade tone with distance
The tone grows softer as you move away from the bird and louder as you get closer. That way you hear not only the direction, but the distance too.
Chirp when the bird is found
A short chirp confirms every bird you find, just before it flies off. Prefer silence? Simply turn it off.
Tips
Small things that make a difference, from your first session to day one hundred.
Pick a quiet room
Augmented reality works best in a room with some light and not too many moving things. Your own living room or bedroom is ideal.
Feel free to move
The bird can land anywhere: next to you, behind you, above you. Turn around calmly and take a few steps if you need to. Just watch where you walk.
Close your eyes now and then
Not sure where the sound is coming from? Close your eyes for a few seconds and just listen. Afterwards you usually know which way to look.
Keep the volume comfortable
Louder is not better. The tone only needs to be audible, at roughly the level of your own tinnitus.
Get your tone right first
Everything starts with a good match. Does the bird not sound like your tinnitus? Adjust your tone in the tone generator first.
Ten minutes every day
One session a day is enough. Better ten calm minutes than an hour at the weekend: repetition is what your brain needs.
Get started
Ten minutes a day, your phone, and your own tone. That's all it takes, and the first 3 days are free.
Freequency complements your existing care and does not replace it. Use it in consultation with your audiologist or healthcare professional.
