392162 Projekt "Dynamic Meditation & Virtual Self-Regulation" (PjS) (SoSe 2017)

Summary
Creation of an immersive virtual environment that promotes mind-body awareness and relaxation through presence, biofeedback with breath and heart rate monitoring, and motion capture.

Project Description
Mind-body practices have been gaining traction with the public in recent years, and the neuroscientific evidence of their effects has been steadily growing. This project aims to leverage the immersive capabilities of VR to creatively help participants cultivate a multisensory awareness of mind-body practice dynamics. One or more high-quality virtual scenes would be created that could each leverage biofeedback in different and unique ways. Monitoring of breath and heart rate via biosensors would be used to dynamically modulate specific visual features of each scene, with the intention of guiding the user into progressively more relaxed states in an explorative manner. Motion capture of arms during smooth, controlled, Tai Chi–like movements would dynamically control the motion of an orb/nebula of diffusely structured light between the virtual arms of the 1st-person avatar in the scene. The visual scene would be modulated by the biofeedback and motion capture in various ways that promote relaxation, increase presence, and guide the participant more deeply into the experience. This is a novel project and would form a touchstone for further development of this type of application.

The core/required features of the project are

• A stable high-quality virtual environment that promotes an aesthetically pleasant user experience; visually, the goal would be a form of “soft beauty”
• Visual features modulated by breath, heart rate, and motion capture
  • Examples could potentially include: levitation, rhythmic pulsation of visual features in the scene, x-ray vision through visual features, Van Gogh–esque blurring of visual features, wind rustling through leaves, birds flying in the distance, clouds moving, … [to be discussed]
• Soothing/relaxing/hypnotic audio tracks that fade in and out at the beginning and end of each session, respectively
• 3D modeling of arms/body
• Instructor voice
• Option to show demo of arm movements for moving the light orb that the participant could follow
• Code editable by experimenter
• Options configurable and pre-selected by participant via user-friendly menu-style interface that can toggle various parameters:
• Choice of scene; arms/body skin color; instruction voice on/off; instruction arm movements on/off; duration of practice session; biofeedback channels on/off; …
• Physiological data from practice sessions is recorded, time-stamped with onset and offset of visual feature feedback, and file-exportable

Potential additional features could include, depending on interest, skill, and resources:

• Additional scenes
• Varied complexity of visual scene modulation by biofeedback and motion capture
  • Heart rate could modulate the scene in one manner (e.g. activity of scene, such wind rustling through leaves, and heart rate variability (HRV) could modulate it in an additional layered manner (e.g. blurriness of visual features)
  • Derivatives of arm movement could modulate the light orb in different ways, e.g. velocity and acceleration (first and second derivatives of displacement, respectively) could modulate its movement, and integrated jerk (third derivative of displacement), aka smoothness, could modulate the size of the orb.
  • Specific forms/patterns of breathing could “unlock” extra dimensions of light orb, e.g. different colors, size, …
• Achieving a high degree of realism in body modeling; utilizing scans of actual body/limbs and representing them in the virtual environment
• Comparison of motion tracking systems for the application, e.g. Leap Motion, accelerometers, Kinect, etc.
• Comparison of heart rate monitoring and breath monitoring systems for the application
• Whole-body modeling, motion capture, and integration into a 3rd-person avatar that is superimposed on the environment
• Arm movements guiding light orbs not only between the two virtual hands but also between the 1st-person avatar and the environment
• Addition of haptic feedback that is synchronised with the movement of the light orb, e.g. using the feelSpace belt or similar.

The project should be made for the HTC Vive and preferably be coded in Unity.

Students are invited to refer to guidedmeditationvr.com & exploredeep.com for loose inspiration.

Requirements for participation, required level

Previous participation in the lecture Virtual Reality required.