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MeditAid: a wearable adaptive neurofeedback-based system for training mindfulness state

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Abstract

A recent interest in interaction design is towards the development of novel technologies emphasizing the value of mindfulness, monitoring, awareness, and self-regulation for both health and well-being. Whereas existing systems have focused mostly on relaxation and awareness of feelings, there has been little exploration on tools supporting the self-regulation of attention during mindfulness sitting meditation. This paper describes the design and initial evaluation of MeditAid, a wearable system integrating electroencephalography technology with an adaptive aural entrainment for real-time training of mindfulness state. The system identifies different meditative states and provides feedback to support users in deepening their meditation. We report on a study with 16 meditators about the perceived strengths and limitations of the MeditAid system. We demonstrate the benefits of binaural feedback in deepening meditative states, particularly for novice meditators.

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Notes

  1. Emotiv. (2014). Electrode Placement. Retrieved 2014, from Emotiv Community: http://www.emotiv.com/forum/forum14/topic25.

  2. Emotiv. (2014). Extracting RAW data and other applications. Retrieved 2014, from Emotiv Community: http://www.emotiv.com/forum/forum4/topic401/.

  3. Emotiv (2014) Sample rate. Retrieved 2014, from Emotiv Community: https://emotiv.com/store/compare/sample rate.

  4. Emotiv (2014). Comparison with other EEG units. Retrieved 2014, from Emotiv Community: http://www.emotiv.com/forum/forum4/topic127/.

  5. Emotiv. (2014). Developer Edition SDK. Retrieved 2014, from Emotiv Store: http://www.emotiv.com/store/sdk/bci/developer-edition-sdk/.

  6. Emotiv. (2014). Extracting RAW data and other applications. Retrieved 2014, from Emotiv Community: http://www.emotiv.com/forum/forum4/topic401/.

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The authors would like to thank all who participated in the study.

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  1. School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Corina Sas & Rohit Chopra

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  1. Corina Sas
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Correspondence to Corina Sas.

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Sas, C., Chopra, R. MeditAid: a wearable adaptive neurofeedback-based system for training mindfulness state. Pers Ubiquit Comput 19, 1169–1182 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-015-0870-z

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