Stairway to Heaven: breathing mindfulness into virtual reality

Abstract

Digital technologies for clinical and therapeutic interventions are emerging and showing promise. Among these, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR, VR, MR), together known as extended reality (XR), are being increasingly used by human-computer interaction (HCI) for applications in health and wellbeing. In this thesis, I explore the potential of VR as a tool for improving people's mindfulness of their breathing. To do so, I designed a VR experience called Stairway to Heaven, a mindfulness breath awareness training that uses a respiration sensor as input to control teleportation mechanics in the virtual experience. I used the VR experience in a study with 21 participants and measured their breathing before, during, and after the experience via the breathing sensor. Furthermore, I use the Immersive Tendencies Questionnaire (ITQ) to assess the immersive tendencies of users before the VR experience and the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) to assess participant perceptions of the experience afterward. Additionally, I use the System Usability Scale (SUS) to gather feedback from users regarding the usability of the VR application and respiration sensor. The results show that participants rapidly learned the breathing mechanics in the experience and sustained attention to the breath awareness training for the duration of the study, thus achieving mindfulness of their breathing. The results also have potential implications for mindful meditation in VR. This work contributes to research integrating wearable sensors in VR and to the development of VR applications for mindfulness training. I conclude the thesis by discussing the implications of my work researching VR and XR applications for therapeutic applications.--Author's abstract