what?
Personal Beasties Group, LLC
- Our first iPhone application, Personal Beasties Breathing, makes it easier for users to take a few deep breaths. By selecting a Personal Beastie and sizing that character according to how anxious or stressed out the user may be, a quick breathing exercise helps get them back to their calm, cool, collected selves.
why?
- Because at Personal Beasties we believe that by taming the beasties within, with sensitivity and humor, users can improve impulse control, emotional resilience, emotional intelligence, compassion and awareness.
how?
- Personal Beasties is a patented utility involving interactive systems for personal life patterns (Patent 6,769,915 Personal Beasties Group, LLC).
- By leveraging client server technologies we develop applications that help users set behavioral goals, track their progress and support them with animated character feedback.
where?
- Personal Beasties Group is located in New York City and San Francisco California.
who?
- Two dedicated alumni and one Adjunct Professor from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University founded Personal Beasties Group, LLC..
Jane Dowling:
- Jane has a keen interest in helping people establish healthy behaviors. A Registered Nurse with experience in adult and pediatric psychiatry, adult and pediatric trauma care and over 12 years working with NIH funded clinical research, it was through the lens of caring for patients that she became interested in interactive media.
- While working with NYU School of Medicine’s AIDS Clinical Trials Group, Jane completed her Master’s at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program where her group thesis work became the core principle to the patent on which Personal Beasties is based on.
- Jane has worked the last 12 years as a User Experience Strategist, identifying the real needs of real people and meeting those needs by aligning design, business and technical requirements in order to deliver products that are meaningful, engaging and helpful. She believes Personal Beasties uses technology to change behaviors in a positive way.
Marc Libarle:
- Marc is an attorney practicing intellectual property law in San Francisco. Mr. Libarle is concerned with issues of digital technology, internet law and practice, privacy and startup companies. He has been an adjunct Professor at New York University’s Graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program. At NYU his teaching focused on the social, political and economic aspects of information technology.
Paula Murgia:
- Paula worked for ten years in adult and children’s psychiatric hospitals when she became interested in helping modify behavior using existing video gaming technologies.
- It was only after investing in bachelors and masters degree programs at Rhode Island School of Design and NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) that these ideas became her group master’s thesis and eventually a utility patent.
- Along the path to developing a usable and engaging product Paula was employed early on in New York City’s nascent digital media industry, as a digital strategist, helping large corporations and small startups evolve their products and services, leveraging emerging technologies.