SPELL=gnaural VERSION=1.0.20080808 SOURCE=$SPELL-$VERSION.tar.gz SOURCE_GPG="gurus.gpg:$SOURCE.sig:WORKS_FOR_ME" SOURCE_DIRECTORY=$BUILD_DIRECTORY/$SPELL-$VERSION SOURCE_URL[0]=$SOURCEFORGE_URL/$SPELL/$SOURCE WEB_SITE=http://gnaural.sourceforge.net/ ENTERED=20090711 LICENSE[0]=GPL SHORT="GTK+ programmable binaural-beat generator" cat << EOF Gnaural is a multi-platform programmable binaural-beat generator, implementing the principle of binaural beats as described in the October 1973 Scientific American article "Auditory Beats in the Brain" (Gerald Oster). There has been considerable research done on the subject since that publication, and WinAural (an early version in the Gnaural lineage) was used as the audio stimulus for at least one published study, "The Induced Rhythmic Oscillations of Neural Activity in the Human Brain", D. Cvetkovic, D. Djuwari, I. Cosic (Australia), from Proceeding (417) Biomedical Engineering - 2004. The central theme of Oster's article is that processesing of auditory binaural beats bears distinct differences from that done for normal sound, emphasizing different neural pathways and highlighting different parameters of the sound stimulus. Oster's observations inspired a wave of research in to the ways in which binaural beats could affect the brain. One area of research explored how binaural beats could evoke a "frequency-following response" (also known as "brainwave entrainment") in EEG measures. My personal interest in binaural beats has centered almost exclusively around exploring this entrainment potential as a means of facilitating meditative states. However, Gnaural was designed to be neutral with regard to any hypothesis or application, relying strictly on the fundamental findings as described in Oster's 1973 overview. EOF