Oasis

Welcome/to/Oasis,/a/digitalmeditation/////experience.

Just/Breathe.

While our original intention for Oasis was to create an exhibit at Imagine RIT, we have since had to pivot to make it entirely digital.

Now you can experience the Oasis on your own device, and just breathe to melt away stress.

Personalized relaxation

Generative art based on quiz answers

Easy to follow, guided meditation

Try It

Stress/is/constant.

Illustration of a person holding up a heavy stone

Statistics

of people regularly experience physical symptoms caused by stress.

- American Insitute of Stress

of people are stressed or feel stressed in their work environment.

- Psychology Today

of adults said they had experienced stress during “a lot of the day”.

- NY Times

%/it/ takes/a/toll.

Effects

Headaches

Stress can trigger and intensify tension headaches.

Insomnia

Stress makes it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Fast heart rate

Under stress, the heart works harder to pump blood. Long term, this can lead to heart disease.

Rapid breathing

Tense breathing muscles under stress can leave you short of breath.

Weak immune system

Weakened defenses from chronic stress makes it more difficult to fight infections.

High blood pressure

Stress causes blood vessels to tighten and raise blood pressure.

Meditation/can/help.

Our application employs the 4-7-8 breathing technique in a relaxing experience that can be used anywhere, anytime.

When you’re feeling stressed, a few moments just focusing on your breathing can make all the difference.

Reduces anxiety

Slows heart rate

Helps you to sleep

Try It

The///////////BreathingBelt

Our Imagine RIT exhibit intended to use a respiration belt made by our team using Adafruit FLORA and a force sensitive resistor. It plugs into the computer and senses your breathing to affect an on-screen visual.

Demo

Skills/%/Technology

p5.js

We used the p5.js library to create and display our custom visuals to the user. Its wide range of capabilities allowed us to make fast, efficient graphics.

p5.js Serial helped connect the respiration belt, so your breathing could affect the visual.

Electronics

Basic electronics helped us to create an electrical circuit that worked with our pressure sensors using resistors and an arduino.

With an Adafruit Flora board, we sent data to and from the device’s sensors and the computer.

Fabrication

Commercially available respiratory measurement devices were out of budget, so we made our own by sewing and soldering parts together.

Coding/Hurdles

Device Calibration

Commercially available respiratory measurement devices were out of budget, so we made our own by sewing and soldering parts together.

Timer Callbacks

Because our app works with and without the belt, when no belt is detected, we have to simulate inhaling, holding, and exhaling to match the on-screen timer.

With a few callback methods, the app knows when to change states in tandem with the timer, so the visuals match up with the intended breath cycle.

Design/System.

Neumorphism

A few iterations landed the UI style at neumorphism. The subtle shading and smooth edges fit the calm atmosphere we wanted to create with the Oasis.

The raised button style feels most similar to a tangible button, which we feel is important, as touch is a vital part of mindfulness and meditation.

Illustrations

To set the atmosphere, we created whimsical illustrations to visualize answers to the quiz questions and bring a sense of delight into the experience.

Before/you/go,

Take These

Extend the Oasis experience into your everyday life by practicing breathing meditation and mindfulness on your own.

Print out these cards and take them with you as a reminder to breathe.

Download

We are Oasis.