Kyung Yun Choi, Valentina Sumini, and Hiroshi Ishii. 2019. ReSpire: Self-awareness and Interpersonal Connectedness through Shape-changing Fabric Display. In Proceedings of the 2019 on Creativity and Cognition (C&C ’19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 449–454. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3325480.3329176

Abstract

reSpire lets people bring tangibility to their invisible physiological state through shape-changing fabric deformed by airflow. We explore a way to support mental wellness via improving a self-interaction and interpersonal connectedness. reSpire encourages not only people to focus on their connection to inner body but also to interact with others through playful tangible interactions in the same location and develop a empathy. We created a non-machine like interface responsive to users’ respiration patterns and hand gestures using a fabric and its deformation by airflow control. We also introduce a computational model to simulate the deformation of fabric by the variance of airflow pressure and direction. Various interaction scenarios highlight its applications not only to health but also to interactive art installation.