Inner Matter
Inner Matter is a semester-long student pitch project in conjunction with digital mindfulness training startup Equa Health. We are focused on creating a VR and biometric sensor integrated meditation app which seeks to introduce a new audience to the efficacy of meditation.
Our target demographic is young adults ages 16-30 who are often engaged in stressful environments and who are new to meditation. To create this VR experience, we are collecting biometrics and integrating that information as environmental biofeedback into a meditation session designed around a twenty minute guided meditation lesson provided by Equa Health. Adding biofeedback to a VR meditation will not only help both the meditator and the Equa track the efficacy of a meditation session, but offers an opportunity for meditators to experience greater immersion in both their physical self-awareness and in the environment around them. We are using a Hexoskin Health Sensor Shirt with volumetric respiration sensors on the stomach and chest to determine when meditators are inhaling or exhaling, their average respiration rate, and each individual breath’s length.
Our aim is to deliver a polished vertical slice of a meditation experience developed through several iterations as a proof of concept for the implementation of respiration rate based biofeedback within VR meditation.
Equa Health
Equa Health is a mobile mental health app focused on personalizing a mindfulness meditation journey for each user. Equa provides users mindfulness lessons, accountability, and guidance individually tailored to each user. With an approach based on 15 years of research in Carnegie Mellon University’s Health and Human Performance Lab, Equa Health has shown to decrease loneliness, reduce stress, and increase well-being in daily life.