Inner garden: Connecting inner states to a mixed reality sandbox for mindfulness

JS Roo, R Gervais, J Frey, M Hachet�- …�of the 2017 CHI conference on�…, 2017 - dl.acm.org
Proceedings of the 2017 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems, 2017dl.acm.org
Digital technology has been completely integrated into our daily lives, yet the potential of
technology to improve its users' life satisfaction is still largely untapped. Mindfulness, the act
of paying a deliberate and non-judgmental attention to the present moment, has been
shown to have a positive impact on a person's health and subjective well-being--commonly
called" happiness". Based on an iterative process with meditation teachers and practitioners,
we designed a new tool to support mindfulness practices. This tool takes the shape of an�…
Digital technology has been completely integrated into our daily lives, yet the potential of technology to improve its users' life satisfaction is still largely untapped. Mindfulness, the act of paying a deliberate and non-judgmental attention to the present moment, has been shown to have a positive impact on a person's health and subjective well-being--commonly called "happiness". Based on an iterative process with meditation teachers and practitioners, we designed a new tool to support mindfulness practices. This tool takes the shape of an augmented sandbox, designed to inspire the user's self-motivation and curiosity. By shaping the sand, the user creates a living miniature world that is projected back onto the sand. The natural elements of the garden are connected to real-time physiological measurements, such as breathing, helping the user to stay focused on the body. Moreover, using a Virtual Reality headset, they can travel inside their garden for a dedicated meditation session. Preliminary results seem to indicate that the system is well suited for mindfulness and induces a calm and mindful state on the user. The meditation teachers envisioned the use of Inner Garden in their practice.
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