Pine trees blow in the wind and sunlight glitters on the sea in a virtual reality meditation program designed by Northeastern University researchers, called Stairway to Heaven. As in similar programs, a calm voice asks participants to be aware of their . But unlike other applications for mindfulness training, Stairway to Heaven equips participants with sensors that detect when they are taking deep, slow breaths and rewards them with passage up and down a densely forested mountain.
Subtitled, "A Gamified VR Journey for Breath Awareness," the project arose out of a Game Science and Design masters thesis by Northeastern Ph.D. student Nathan Miner, who was exploring new ways to engage people in breathing-based mindfulness practices.
"I was interested in seeing how you could make a supportive and compelling experience with breathing as the only input into the system," says Miner, who is studying interdisciplinary design and media. "By paying attention to the breath, you can be guided to a calm and peaceful state," he says. A was published in , with Miner as lead author and Troiano and Casper Harteveld, Northeastern professor of game design, listed among the co-authors.
Gamifying the experience by linking breathing, registered through a respiration sensor, to progression through the virtual reality forest via glowing stone markers was a way to help keep participants' focus on their breathing, Miner says. The 21 study participants registered a notable difference between baseline bre.
