. Inner Garden: A sandbox (up left) is connected to physiological sensors (bottom left) to create a mindful interactive experience where the user can shape her own world that evolves according to her breathing and heart rate (center). The user can then decide to be immersed inside this world thanks to a Head Mounted Display (right) for a moment of solitude and meditation. 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.
Inner Garden by Sol Roo et al. REF is a tool to support mindfulness practices, which is defined as "the act of playing a deliberate and non-judgmental attention to the present moment" where "positive impact of a person's health and subjective well-being" can be achieved.
Inner Garden: Connecting Inner States to a Mixed Reality Sandbox for Mindfulness
CHI '17
Computer Science