Meditation VR is a series of high-fidelity guided meditation experiences. Its aim is to raise the bar for meditative experiences in VR to truly transport users to a beautiful dream location: “Birds high up in the sky, waves rolling in on the shore, the wind blowing through palm trees and plants that grow on your private secluded island all contribute both visually and in sound to a surreal experience that practically makes you feel the ocean breeze.” Scenes are photorheological rendered with high visual fidelity.
Users are guided by a voice uniquely tailored to the island environment to help ease them into a truly immersive experience. This VR experience is suitable for a single person in a sitting posture. It is available on Steam and Oculus Gear VR and is developed by Better Than Life immersive studio.
Learn how to meditate. Explore the title settings and game options.
Auditory
Users perceived a low level of control and agency in this experience. Agency and control were rated low, though ratings for delay were higher. The characteristics of the title, in which the user does not log in or follow a guided tour, but rather just sits and follows the voice-guided meditation, probably resulting in decreased perceived control.
The realism of the experience was rated second lowest by the evaluators, who report somewhat reduced naturality and consistency. This may also be explained by the characteristics of the title, where the absence of interaction with oversimplified functionality could trigger awareness of the artificiality and unrealism of the experience, undermining the sense of presence.
As can be observed, both auditory aspects of the title were evaluated as good, which may be consistent with the goal of the experience to be focused on meditation. On the contrary, despite high-fidelity graphics, visuals were assessed relatively low and thus were less engaging. One indicator in particular, locomotion, is evaluated as very ineffective.
Results show that the devices contribute to keeping users focused on meditation without many options for user control. Display quality was rated as fair. Users of Oculus Quest 1 and HTC Vive weren't aware that control interfaces existed, whereas users of Windows MR and Quest were aware but seemed to become annoyed by them, which resulted in lower ratings. There was no difference between the PC VR and standalone headsets, among which HTC Vive supported this experience best.
To summarize, on a scale of 1 to 7, the sense of presence when using Meditation VR is rated 3.98, which can be considered fair. The strengths of this title are the sense of concentration (i.e., lack of tendency to become distracted), which can be largely attributed to the removal of the user interfaces and customization options inside the virtual environment. On the contrary, its weaknesses are sense of control and realism. The former can be explained by the absence of interactions within the experience; the latter can be attributed to the lack of a sense of locomotion.
In this experience, no linkage or appropriation of the virtual body is achieved. The evaluators assign a value between -1.5 and -1.25 (disagree) to most of the indicators related to the identification of the virtual body within the experience. This can be explained by the fact that Meditation VR is an application that neither provides a real avatar nor shows parts of virtual bodies, like the controller and headset, so these results should not be unexpected.
This title consists of software for meditation and wellness, so there isn’t a single significant stimulus that is relevant to its analysis. The results show – again – that identification of a virtual body was not achieved. The indicators are closely related to the sense of touch, and all of them were evaluated negatively, which may be related to the absence of interaction with the stimulus. However, the sound aspects might influence the affective and physical sensation against the stimulus.
To summarize, the sense of embodiment was not achieved (in total, -1.08) when meditating with Meditation VR. The main factor that could explain this is the absence of a virtual body or avatar for the user and the missing interaction with virtual objects, and a greater focus on the meditation with voice guidance rather than on the embodied or sensory experience of the user.
The narrative in Meditation VR is supported by the following story elements: Real-world metaphors, Auditory elements, Visual elements, Mise en scène, and Backstory and/or context. The distractions are a mix of positive, e.g., “beach water sounds and birds” for a calm mood, and negative, e.g., “the lack of player body” and “significant framerate issues."
The emotions triggered by this immersive experience are mostly calm and soothing. The set design and lighting are the most influential visual effects. The visual design supports this emotion, including phenomena of water, sunset and shadow, ocean waves, animals, and foliage as attention cues and mood supporters. A sense of calm was further supported with rich textures of beach sand and foliage, as well as the design of an inviting armchair under shadows of large trees on the beach of an isolated island.
Enhancement of Presence / Narrative
“I didn’t feel like I was sitting right inside the chair -kind of floating.”
“The play session will continue regardless of what I look at in the environment, the visual design.”
“The visual design is well used to increase the experience of presence.”
Visual Phenomena
“Reflection in the water”
“Sun setting/shadows”
Attention Cues
“The birds in the distance moved in the sky and the palm tree leaves moved in the space catering for my attention.”
“Glowing lizards climbing trees.”
Mood Support
“The birds, ocean movement and palm tree leaves added to a calming environment
“Setting Sun on a calm beach is soothing.”
“Sun setting invites a calm to the play session.”
Lighting
“The sunlight in the space helped create actually being there on the beach.”
“Sun gradually sets and glows off the horizon.”
“Sun setting invites a calm to the play session.”
“Starting with a sunny day and shifting to a sunset by the end of the experience supports the calming mood of the experience.”
Colour
“The blues and sandy colours made the beach space real.”
“Greenery – foliage.”
“Light blues, vibrant greens, and soft oranges set the peaceful tone of the experience.”
Texture
“Rich beach sand and rich foliage texture portray realism.”
“Texture can be increased or decreased depending on the user's preferences and hardware processing power. They help with a sense of realism, so the user can be immersed in the experience.”
Motion
“Birds flying into the horizon.”
“The ocean lapping on the beach or animals slowly moving aids to the calming environment goals.”
“The motion of the water, the palm fronds, and the birds provide a calming effect.”
Set Design and Layouts
“The trees in the distance and birds’ size in the distance added to creating a real beach scene.”
“The beach seat was easily set in the shades of the trees.”
“While completely isolated from the rest of the island, the play space had plenty to look at.”
“A couple of meters space in the sand provides a sense of one's own space before the tree line, the shoreline, and other elements come into play. Those elements are close enough to give a sense of comforting enclosure.”
Emotional Response
“Felt calm”
“Soothing, calmness”
“Calmness”
“The visual design gives a sense of ease, comfort, and calming. It's a peaceful atmosphere.”
Audio design enhances the sense of calmness, peace and relaxation. The most significant sound effect is the voice over, which takes the form of a calming, soothing and friendly voice with a sense of authority. Gentle sounds like rustling leaves, bird calls, shuffling crabs, and and splashing waves create a sense of tranquility.
Enhancement of Presence / Narrative
“Everything is quite peaceful in the experience, no soundsever counter-each other or create a pain point.”
“The audio is well used throughout the experience for asense of presence and to progress the narrative.”
Audio Phenomena
“Splashing waves”
“Wild, waves crashing”
“The waves against the shoreline, some wind in the trees,and occasional bird calls fit the setting.”
Attention Cues
“Like some rustling leaves behind me.”
“Animal sounds such as birds flying or crabs walking.”
“Bird calls can draw the user's attention to a specific spotin the sky, but only if one is wanting to give in to it.”
Mood Support
“Crashing waves of water – gentle.”
“The sound effects are never overwhelming and add to thecalming effect of the experience.”
Soundscape
“During the guided meditation the person's voice supportsthe meditation focus.”
“Just a sonorous sound.”
“The default music is a soft organ drone, which adds someenergy without being overpowering.”
Voice Quality
“The guided voice and pace in slow and calm adding to apeaceful session.”
“Narrator's voice is calm and soothing.”
“a calm female voice actor leads the meditation.”
“The meditation guide's voice was calming and friendly, butalso with a sense of authority as someone I would want to listen to and followher guidance.”
Emotional Response
“Relaxing”
“Calmness”
“The audio design adds to the sense of calm, peacefulness and relaxation.”
For an experience that aims to generate calm and a sense of relaxation in its users, lowering the heart rate is something that should be considered a success. No other reactions were reported.
“Decreased heart rate”
“The experience is designed to relax users, and it achieves this through the visual and auditory elements.”
In alignment with the physiological response, the only affective response described was one of calm and relaxation. It can be said that the narrative and elements of Meditation VR managed to consistently generate the intended effect on its users.
“Calm / Relaxation”
“Peacefulness”
“The guided meditation is helpful in creating a peaceful setting.”
“Like the physiological responses, the experience achieves the psychological responses through the various visual and auditory elements.”
It refers to readying a virtual object for interaction, without yet committing to taking that action. It is carried out simply with the input device controls by pointing out objects and by direct touch and releasing the trigger mechanism. The overall interaction experience was well valued by users of Oculus devices, but as inaccurate and clumsy using a HTC device.
By pressing A/X buttons within the experience brings up the menu and reveals the controllers.
The system doesn’t require object manipulation.
In the same way, diegetic shaders are used as feedback communication to the user.
Maintaining the same style, when options are unavailable the system informs of it by using shaders.
