Abstracts of Scientific Papers Presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Biofeedback Federation of Europe

Abstract

We previously presented alternative presentations of HRV feedback based on real-time Poincare plots, which offer a faster and more direct feedback of heart rate variability than other approaches. We take a design perspective in creating biofeedback systems, which empower their users in matters of health and wellbeing, for instance, in coping with stress. In 2011 we discussed the relative advantages (more direct and faster feedback, more precise patterns visible) and disadvantages (lower outlier robustness and narrative adaptability) of real-time Poincare plots. Now we ask ourselves whether a similar effect could be reached using the auditory modality rather than the visual. The main envisioned advantage is that feedback sessions can be done with the eyes closed and leaning back, which we assume is an excellent condition for relaxation. Our way of working is to develop experiential prototypes and explore the functional, aesthetic, and perceptive qualities of the feedback—with an emphasis on the form giving. Using a PPG sensor and the Processing programming envi- ronment we created a prototype, in which four variations of direct auditory feedback are implemented (besides visual forms such as traditional tachograms and real-time Poincare plots). In each of these forms the aim is to map timing variations of the heart-beats to timing or dynamic variations of the sound. The motivation for this is the design principle ‘‘natural mapping’’, which would be violated when mapping timing information to more qualitative aspects of sound (texture, frequency spectrum, filtering) rather than frequency or amplitude, for example. Results on the effectiveness of the design propositions are not available yet. However, we shall demonstrate and discuss them, and in doing so we look forward to share our work with members of the BFE community and hear their opinion.