Breeze: Sharing Biofeedback Through Wearable Technologies

TL;DR

This paper introduces Breeze, a wearable device that provides real-time biofeedback of breathing patterns through visual, audio, and haptic modalities to enhance awareness and emotional connection.

Contribution

The paper presents the design, development, and evaluation of Breeze, a novel wearable for sharing and interpreting breathing biofeedback across multiple modalities.

Findings

Participants modified their breathing to match biofeedback.

Breathing patterns and feedback modalities influenced perception.

Guidelines for use cases like increasing connectedness and empathy.

Abstract

Digitally presenting physiological signals as biofeedback to users raises awareness of both body and mind. This paper describes the effectiveness of conveying a physiological signal often overlooked for communication: breathing. We present the design and development of digital breathing patterns and their evaluation along three output modalities: visual, audio, and haptic. We also present Breeze, a wearable pendant placed around the neck that measures breathing and sends biofeedback in real-time. We evaluated how the breathing patterns were interpreted in a fixed environment and gathered qualitative data on the wearable device's design. We found that participants intentionally modified their own breathing to match the biofeedback, as a technique for understanding the underlying emotion. Our results describe how the features of the breathing patterns and the feedback modalities influenced participants' perception. We include guidelines and suggested use cases, such as Breeze being used by loved ones to increase connectedness and empathy.