Abstract

Stress and stress-related physical and mental diseases are increasing and affecting more people every day. There have been many approaches to try to solve this issue. Many of them are based on the idea that meditation and mindfulness breathing could improve these conditions. The problem is that not everyone can achieve those levels of meditation for that to work. Another issue is that those solutions are relying on a particular way of breathing to help all.

In contrast, this project developed under research that shows that the amount of CO₂ in a person's exhaled breath could be an indicator of their mood. How much, and for how long we take in oxygen could reveal data in our exhale breathe to tell us in which specific state we are. Controlling the physiology of our breathing seems to work faster at the moment of the stress symptoms happening. This device has the intention of telling the user in which rhythm it makes more sense for them to breathe according to their specific physiology state.

In this context, there was a need to keep looking at competitive products to see what works and what does not. This exploration was done to see if the technology applied in the capnography could be implemented into this device to control the exhale breathing readings. User testing, interviews with experts in electrical engineering, meditation, people suffering from stress, anxiety, and panic attacks helped to inform the development of this project. The result is a friendly hand-held device, intuitive to use and with subtle vibration feedback to interact with the user. The people I interviewed seemed interested in this product and willing to use it, but further research is needed in this matter. Also and long-term research is required, perhaps with a more significant sample of people to see the progress of people

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Breathing exercises--Equipment and supplies--Design; Stress management; Respiratory gas monitoring; Capnography

Publication Date

5-1-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Industrial Design (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

School of Design (CAD)

Advisor

Stan Rickel

Advisor/Committee Member

Lorraine Justice

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

IDDE-MFA

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