Sounds in the moment: designing an interactive EEG nature soundscape for novice mindfulness meditators

Abstract

With the rise of mindfulness in contemporary western society as a positive way to cope with stress and improve health and wellbeing, researchers are investigating the application of interactive soundscapes to enrich and support the experience of mindfulness meditation. Instead of using commonly applied corrective feedback models, containing sounds with negative connotations, our interaction concept adopted a strategy of gently guiding and supporting the user's in-the-moment experience of practising meditation through a nature soundscape responsive to their brainwave activity recorded with a Muse EEG headset. In this paper we describe the detailed design of our prototype. We explain how we refined the interaction concept, and discuss some of the key design decisions and modifications that took place during an iterative design process, informed by user evaluations with novice meditators.