iBreathe by saraswathi

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

http://ibreathe.info/
iBreathe runs off of a stretch sensor, an arduino, and Processing.
Oftentimes when we sit at our computers, hunched over, distracted, or stressed out - we forget to breathe. Linda Stone refers to this common phenomenon as "email apnea" in this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-stone/just-breathe-building-the_b_85651.html
Shallow, restricted breathing and poor posture can lead to short term feelings of anxiety, and long term health problems! This is where iBreathe comes in.
Using Processing code, iBreathe helps you calibrate a moderate to deep breath through the dimness function in your (mac only, for now) computer. When your breathing falls out of the calibrated range - i.e. stops or becomes shallow - your computer screen will dim, obscuring your work. Once you are back in range, your computer will brighten again, and you can keep at it - hopefully feeling a bit more serene.
Also included here is a bracelet that uses an iPhone motor to vibrate as a gentle, tactile reward when you are breathing in range for an extended period of time.
And last of all - just for fun - is the USB umbilical cord. iBreathe can run wired or wirelessly, but at the ITP Winter Show, where it was shown recently, we kept it wired via a latex covered USB cord made to look like flesh - just to emphasize the biological link you're forging with your computer by being mindful of your breath.
Have fun! And please email us with your questions, comments, or success!
hi.ibreathe @ gmail . com