DATE
April - July 2022
Mediated Air
Covid - 19 related project
DATE
Dec 2020 -
Jan 2021
RESPONSIBILITY
Research
Ideation
Interaction design
Visual design
Python coding
TOOLS
Raspberry pi
Python
Adobe illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Sensors
Miro
INTRODUCTION
The year 2020 has brought us a new era in technology. Due to the outbreak of Covid-19, our lifestyles have been developing in new directions and these changes have also opened up new possibilities for digital technologies, especially for health issues. This design project aims at focusing on how we can strengthen both our physical and mental health through breathing exercises. The project Mediated Air was created by Juliana Hernandez Baez, Stella S.H. Wong, Susanne Månsson and Weronika Krzewska.
My academic paper on this project has been submitted to ACM DIS 2021 conference.
PROJECT GOALCOVID-19 IMPACTS ON OUR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH
On a physical basis, Covid-19 is an infectious disease that would attack our respiratory system, shorten our breath or even damage our lungs in long term. Apart from physical health, Covid-19 is also affecting our mental health. Based on the survey from WHO*the demand for mental health has been increasing worldwide since the pandemic. Due to the long quarantine time, anxiousness about the virus, the feeling of being isolated from society, loss of income and uncertainty about the unknown, it is common that people would feel fear and stress.
* WHO. COVID-19 disrupting mental health services in most countries. [Online] October 5, 2020. https://www.who.int/news/item/05-10-2020-covid-19-disrupting-mental-health-services-in-most-countries-who-survey.
INSPIRATION OF MEDIATED AIR
In order to find some inspiration for our projects, we conducted some research about breathing and airflow. And, we found it would be interesting to know more about the benefits of breathing exercise and their advantages for recovery from Covid-19. As the demand for medical therapy is increasing, we see the possibility to create a digital device that could solve the needs.
Here are some online resources about how breathing exercises/ therapy can help with the recovery from Covid-19:
SOMA DESIGN COMBINED WITH QIGONG
From the research on the benefits of the breathing exercise, we realised that Tai Chi Qigong (Qigong) has similar concepts. Qigong is a mind-body training that is able to strengthen the body, breathe and mind. By combining sets of body movements and postures with Dan Tian breathing method, Qigong can improve trainers’ breathing rhythm into a slow, deep and long pattern.
In fact, there is a lot of medical research on Qigong has been carried out and it is even classified as a kind of effective meditation. According to Sunny H. W. Chan and Hector W. H. Tsang*, Qigong can help not only with physical issues but also with psychosocial wellness. The meditative movement practices would combine specific movement patterns with breathing techniques so as to reach the meditation state. This mind-body or body-mind practice would enable us to experience one to one-self embodied mind experience as it focuses on bodily sensations and breathing so as to achieve relaxation.
*The Beneficial Effects of Qigong on Elderly Depression. Chan, Sunny H. W., Hector W. H. Tsang. 147, s.l. : International Review of Neurobiology, 2019, pp. 155-88. doi:10.1016/bs.irn.2019.06.004.
QIGONG VS THE CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
Qigong also represents Chinese philosophy. ‘Yin and Yang’ in Tai Chi are a concept of having a balance between all on earth while having a perfect balance can create harmony. And the highest level of this philosophical concept is to create harmony between humans and nature. Therefore we can interpret Qigong not only as a practice of balancing and harmonizing the relationship between the body and mind but also as an experience of awakening our sense of being part of the world.
We hope that Mediated Air could encourage and motivate more people to have breathing exercise regularly in order to strengthen their health and mind.
The composition of the Mediated Air
HOW
DOES IT WORK?
By combining the concept of Tai Chi, the prototype will be divided into two halves which interpret as ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’. And inside each of the half spheres, we have inserted LDR and hall sensors as inputs to control the functions of the ball, which are the LED lights and fans.
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When the half spheres are picked up, the two half spheres will turn on the LED lights in red and blue separately by receiving natural sunlight.
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When the sphere faces upwards, the fans will turn on with wind blowing from the round side
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When the half spheres face downwards, the fans will shift to blow from the flat side
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When two half face against each other, the fans will stop and the LED light will turn purple
HAVE BREATHING EXERCISES WITH MEDIATED AIR
In order to find out the set of movements to test out the design idea, we researched the basic posture of Qigong and also research different kinds of physical training for breathing exercises from the West. From Margaret Morris’s book*, we have learned that some embodied movements have similarities with the Qigong, especially the stretch and relax breathing method. And, we have chosen a few movements for our project.
*Morris, Margaret. Basic Physical Training : Fifty-Five Exercises in Diagrams and in Words. s.l. : Kent : Elsevier Science & Technology, 2013. pp. 129-137.
BUILDING THE PROTOTYPE
For the prototype, we used Raspberry Pi for the coding. We have tried different kinds of sensors such as Hall sensor, LDR sensor, Tilt sensor, Ultrasonic sensor, PIR motion sensor and Triple-Axis Accelerometer.
Here is the first version of the prototype.
We used a humidifier as the first container for our prototype
Activating sensors with Raspberry Pi and Python.
Testing and Result
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