Zen Space | 禅

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Demonstration Videos

Video 1: Background & Intro

Note: Part of the background music was muted by YouTube.

Video 2: Features of Zen Space

Project Overview

As the final group project of the graduate-level course, Research on User Behavior and Human-Computer Interaction, at Sun-Yat Sen Univerisity, we design and develop Zen Space, an in-home mindfulness-based stress reduction AR application developed with Unity3D and C# language. The project is deployed on a Microsoft HoloLens device, which is a mixed-reality (MR) holographic computer in the form of a head-mounted display.

In a preliminary experiment, we found that Zen Space significantly lowered users’ level of anxiety and improved their level of mindfulness through multi-model input (hand gestures, verbalization, and eye movements) and multi-sense feedback (vision and audio).

Feature 1: Auditory Meditation Guidance

In these scenes, users practice respired mindfulness sessions (1) under the guidance of the virtual mentor, or (2) following the therapeutic music and visualized feedback.

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Feature 2: Gesture-based Meditation and Slow Interaction

In these scenes, users are encouraged to interact with hand gestures to: (1) draw patterns, or (2) pinch to generate lotus flowers. Such slow interaction releases the users from the sources of their anxiety and helps them regain the control of mind.

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Feature 3: Eye Movement Recognition and Interaction

In this scene, users are encouraged to focus on the butterfly and receive feedback on falling petals. This session helps users boost concentration.

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Pilot User Tests

We recruited 10 partipants from the university for a pilot user test. We asked the participants to fill in a pre-test survey questionnaire, walk through the whole mindfulness training session, and then fill in a post-test survey questionnaire. Each experiments sesson were conducted in a usability lab and lasted for about 40 minutes. Results show that “Zen Space” is effective in increasing participants’ perceived level of mindfulness and decreasing the level of anxiety.