There currently isn't an effective way to integrate respiration data into Virtual Reality, even though millions could benefit from immersive breathing training. This could help with conditions like PTSD, chronic pain, anxiety, smoking cessation, meditation training and more.
Breathing is one of the only physiological processes that can run automatically and be controlled consciously. This allows it to become a gateway for controlling your physiological and emotional state. However, many struggle to focus on their breath, raising the question: how can breath sensing and VR be combined to improve well-being?
In this blogpost, I’ll show you a prototype of a breathing sensor that we built to address some of these challenges.
Breathing sensor mounted on Oculus Rift HMD
Imagine if breathing training were as engaging as exploring a virtual world, moving a ball on a serene beach, breathing fire like a dragon, or simply observing your breath in a playful way.
Origination
Since the inception of JunoVR, I've been inspired by the idea of integrating real-time respiration feedback with visual experiences. Traditional methods, like microphone-based breathing detection and belt stretch sensors, have significant limitations—either being prone to environmental noise or requiring cumbersome setup and calibration with poor airflow correlation.
This challenge led me to develop a breathing sensor specifically designed for virtual reality, aiming for quick setup and accurate airflow measurement from the mouth.
The Sensor
The sensor is mounted on a flexible arm attached to the side of the Oculus Rift, allowing for easy adjustments. The early prototype (image below) uses a thermistor-based sensor to primarily measure airflow out of the mouth or nostrils, with potential for detecting inflow with further software development.
Sensor from user perspective
Breathing Biofeedback Guided VR Relaxation
The video below shows a couple of demonstration experiences mapping breath to the virtual experience. Both experiences start out black, grounding the user in their body and then slowly fade into either a forest scene or a beach scene.
In the forest scene, the breath flows out of the mouth as a spray of particles which whimsically disappear into the environment. People liken it to blowing seeds off of a dandelion and also compare it to the feeling of smoking.
The beach scene is a more playful experiment of mapping breath to the specific object in the scene, in this case a ball. The ball changes from green to blue every 4.5 seconds and the guided meditation teacher coaches towards. People find this experience more fun.
Flying Around the San Francisco Bay Area Using Your Breath
We exported data from the Berkeley Geological Department and integrated it into a VR experience. This video showcases some experiments where the environment reacts to breathing from an expansive vista point atop Mt. Tamalpais.
Users can also choose to fly around the bay. As they breathe, they receive an impulse forward in the direction they are looking, creating a fun and novel way to navigate the virtual world. This method helps users quickly tune into their breathing. A light on the screen indicates when a breath is detected.
Simulating Cold Weather Breathing ... and… BREATHING FIRE!
In this video, we created a breathing effect aimed at simulating the foggy breath experience during a cold winter day. It's very subtle and calming.
Lastly, we couldn't resist building a fire breathing example after so many people mentioned it upon trying the sensor.
What We've Learned and Possible Uses
Breath can add a powerful level of immersion to VR experiences. People have said that just a simple breathing experience is much more immersive than many VR experiences they've tried.
People have a hard time visualizing their breath but VR works perfectly for this. It could be great for training users to work with PTSD, chronic pain, anxiety, child birthing, shots, and more.
Some users experience a similar satisfaction to smoking when they see their breath in VR, suggesting applications for smoking cessation.
People find it much easier to focus on their breath when it's visual and seen directly in front of them and visual. This is useful for learning many meditation methods.
Outside of virtual reality, some people find they have a new and different relationship with their breath. One woman even dreamed about using her breath to fly multiple nights.
It would be possible use this for VR user analytics to see how someone’s breathing changes over the course of an VR experience using breathing and emotional state correlation research like this
What's Next
We're still exploring applications of this sensor modality for reducing pain and anxiety. We thought it'd be valuable to share some of the learning and progress, as I'm sure other people are working on similar types of applications.
If you are interested in getting breathing data into virtual reality feel free to comment or contact us. We could publish a build your own sensor peripheral manual or possibly commercialize this as a peripheral if there is enough interest.
Thank you for reading and please share this with anyone who you think it could benefit.
A breathing sensor that measures airflow out of the mouth of a VR user