Lotus: Mediating Mindful Breathing

Abstract

We present Lotus; an actuated plant-like device designed to guide the user through breathing exercises. The development of Lotus explores whether IoT devices can aid in the practice of mindfulness and reducing stress. Lotus uses heart rate (HR) monitoring to detect high levels of stress and trigger the start of its guided exercises through the movement of its petals. An initial study proved that Lotus may help users to reduce their stress.