Zen Space

Demonstration Video

1. Background & Intro

Note: Due to some unavoidable issues, part of the background music was muted by YouTube.

2. Features of Zen Space

Project Description

Zen Space is an in-home mindfulness-based stress reduction AR application developed with Unity3D and C# language. In a preliminary experiment, I 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).

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.

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.

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.

Pilot User Test

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.