Somatic Vision

I am interested in buying Alive, but I am not sure if the Dual Drive game comes with it for the basic price with either hardware piece. Do the other games come with it as well?

Also is there a big advantage over the Heartmath feedback vs the finger feedback device?

Thanks

Hi Lightenup,

All versions of Alive include Dual Drive.

Inner Tube and Particle Editor can work with Alive, but are purchased separately.

The IOM, which goes on your fingers, includes skin conductance (skin sweat), which is only trained in the Clinical version of Alive, but also can be used with Inner Tube, Particle Editor, or Dual Drive (but not the versions of these in Alive, unless you have Alive Clinical).

The ear sensor by Heart Math (emWave ear-clip) only works with Alive, and software in Alive (including Inner Tube for Alive and Particle Editor for Alive). It is less expensive as it does not also measure skin conductance. In Alive you can use "coherence" as Heart Math measures in their emWave PC software, as an alternative to "Smoothness" Somatic Vision's similar measurement. Both of these are measurements of what biofeedback practitioners call heart rate variability. Additionally the emWave version of Alive comes with the option to hook Alive up to an intense action game Half Life 2 (sold separately). This is only possible with an earclip, since the finger sensors would prevent you from playing Half Life 2 properly.

Both the IOM and emWave will result in similar, probably basically identical, heart rate measurements. Some people don't have a strong enough pulse in their ear to place the ear-clip on the ear, but in this case you can put it on a finger instead.

Best,

Ryan Deluz

Hi. I work for an organisation that currently has many emWaves for clinical use, and I notice that your Alive Clinical suite seems to have a number of nice features which could expand the utility of these units. As well as the clinical screens and multi-user features, it appears that the Clinical suites also act as a base for some of your optional games like Tropic Heat 2, Inner Tube, Particle Editor and Dual Drive. The emWave distributor in this region has no knowledge of your Alive software, but does supply Dual Drive Pro and Tropical Heat for emWave sourced from HeartMath. I note the absence of the "2" on this version of Tropical Heat, and that it is offered at a substantially lesser price than your "Tropical Heat 2". The difference between these various models was unclear from your website. Could you please provide clarification about how these options differ? Thanks.

Hi,

Tropical Heat and Dual Drive are available for $99 from HeartMath and emWave distributors. This version works directly with the emWave software, using Dual Drive or Tropical Heat as a game for the emWave software. You'll be using the standard coherence measurements and sessions management present in the emWave PC/Mac software.

If you want to use Alive as a base software, this connects directly to the emWave sensor, bypassing the emWave software. You can choose between HeartMath coherence algorithms or the much faster Somatic Vision smoothness algorithms. There is better graphing and session review, etc. You then need to purchase Tropical Heat from SomaticVision.com or a SomaticVision.com distributor. Download versions are available.

It is true that at this point the version of Tropical Heat from Somatic Vision is newer than the one for emWave. You can now race as animals and have additions to the levels such as fish swimming, etc. Most importantly though the faster Somatic Vision algorithms make the game better, in my opinion. At some point the emWave version of Tropical Heat may also be updated.

If you use this professionally I strongly suggest upgrading to Alive, and purchasing the software that plugs into Alive, as Alive is specifically designed for professional and/or clinical use, as opposed to the emWave software which caters towards a wider population of end users.

Best,

Ryan Deluz
Somatic Vision Inc.