Exploring Biofeedback with a Tangible Interface Designed for Relaxation
This is an incremental pilot study exploring a tangible biofeedback device for anxiety management, with mixed results highlighting challenges in the field.
The study tackled anxiety regulation by testing a biofeedback device called 'Inner Flower' that adapts a breathing guide to heart rate, comparing ambient and focus conditions and biofeedback versus sham feedback. They found the focus group showed higher relaxation and cognitive task performance, but ambient feedback had no noticeable effect and biofeedback did not significantly differ from sham feedback.
Anxiety is a common health issue that can occur throughout one's existence. In this pilot study we explore an alternative technique to regulate it: biofeedback. The long-term objective is to offer an ecological device that could help people cope with anxiety, by exposing their inner state in a comprehensive manner. We propose a first iteration of this device, "Inner Flower", that uses heart rate to adapt a breathing guide to the user, and we investigate its efficiency and usability. Traditionally, such device requires user's full attention. We propose an ambient modality during which the device operates in the peripheral vision. Beside comparing "Ambient" and "Focus" conditions, we also compare the biofeedback with a sham feedback (fixed breathing guide). We found that the Focus group demonstrated higher relaxation and performance on a cognitive task (N-back). However, there was no noticeable effect of the Ambient feedback, and the biofeedback condition did not yield any significant difference when compared to the sham feedback. These results, while promising, highlight the pitfalls of any research related to biofeedback, where it is difficult to fully comprehend the underlying mechanisms of such technique.