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Hacking Alternatives in 21st Century: Designing a Bio-Responsive Virtual Environment for Stress Reduction

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 604))

Abstract

In this paper we present the initial exploratory design of SOLAR, an immersive virtual environment (VE) that assists novice users to learn the stress reducing practice of mindfulness meditation. The VE is generated by the user’s brain activity and respiratory rate. In addition, we provide an overview of previous work, outlining the elements we find effective and the gaps for each presented design. This is followed by a description of the design principles. Finally, we present the participatory design, design evaluation and iteration, followed by possible applications for the final design and future steps.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the participants, Amber Choo, Carman Neustaedter, Thecla Schiphorst, Marilyn Cochrane, and Moving Stories Project. This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Correspondence to Mirjana Prpa .

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Prpa, M., Cochrane, K., Riecke, B.E. (2016). Hacking Alternatives in 21st Century: Designing a Bio-Responsive Virtual Environment for Stress Reduction. In: Serino, S., Matic, A., Giakoumis, D., Lopez, G., Cipresso, P. (eds) Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health. MindCare 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 604. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32270-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32270-4_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-32269-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32270-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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