Binaural beats also known as binaural tones are a form of stereo audio processing artifacts, these sounds arise in the human brain independent of any external stimuli. Heinrich Wilhelm Dove discovered the effect back in the year 1839.
The different frequencies and sound waves are divided as follows: Alpha Wave, Beta Wave, Delta Wave, Gamma Wave, and Theta Waves
The binaural effect occurs when for example an audio frequency of 350 Hz is played in the right ear and a frequency of 340 Hz is played in the left ear, your brain will creates a third tone in this case 10 Hz, such a tone is called the binaural tone, or the binaural beat.
Above 40 Hz is called Gamma, these are waves used to stimulate Higher mental activity, including perception, problem solving, fear, and consciousness.
13–40 Hz is a Beta wave used to stimulate Active, busy or anxious thinking and active concentration, arousal, cognition
7–13 Hz Alpha is a wave used to stimulate Relaxation (while awake), pre-sleep and pre-wake drowsiness
4–7 Hz Theta is a wave used to stimulate Dreams, deep meditation, REM sleep
< 4 Hz Delta are waves used to stimulate Deep dreamless sleep, loss of body awareness
In the month of October 2008 a company called brainwave entrainment released an application for the iPhone called MindWave.
MindWave was released by Jakub Koter in the Apple Store for the price of $1.99, the application uses binaural beats to stimulate the human brain.
By mixing these audio waves into your left and right ear, the binauaral beat is achieved, hence stimulating the brain, creating different effects into your mind.
While there are other sound effects and relaxing background sound applications for the iphone such as Ambiance, Mindwave works in a totally different way.
The audio sounds it produces are designed to affect your brain in a different way.
MindWave comes with a dozen different binaural tunes with special names: Study Aid, Sleep Induction, Creativity Boost, and Weight Loss.