The Meditation Chamber: Enacting Autonomic Senses
Chris Shaw, Diane Gromala, A. Fleming Seay · 2007
The Meditation Chamber is a novel combination of immersive virtual reality (VR) and biofeedback technologies. Its primary goal is to help users lower their stress levels through meditation and muscle relaxation. Its secondary goal is to enable users who have never meditated to gain real-time feedback that allows them to sense when they are indeed lowering the physiological states that are indicative of meditating. During its first use – an exhibition at SIGGRAPH 2001, between Emerging Technologies and the Art Gallery — the relaxation levels of 411 users were studied. It is now in use at Virtually Better and its clinical partners. This paper explores its first iteration, and outlines the plan for its reconfigured, second use for the treatment of chronic pain. 1.