Mindfulness Meditation and Respiration: Accelerometer-Based Respiration Rate and Mindfulness Progress Estimation to Enhance App Engagement and Mindfulness Skills

Respiration biosignal feedback from a smartphone's built-in accelerometer can improve the usability of mindfulness apps and help track skill development. A respiration tracking algorithm, tested on 261 meditation sessions in controlled and real-world settings, accurately captures slow breathing patterns typical of mindfulness, achieving a mean error of 1.6 breaths per minute. A novel framework estimates three mindfulness skills—concentration, sensory clarity, and equanimity—from respiration data, with F1 scores of 80-84% for tracking skill progression. A user study comparing an experimental group receiving biosignal feedback with a control group using a standard app shows that respiration feedback enhances system usability, suggesting smartphone sensors can enhance digital mindfulness training without additional wearables.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mindfulness training is widely recognized for its benefits in reducing depression, anxiety, and loneliness. With the rise of smartphone-based mindfulness apps, digital meditation has become more accessible, but sustaining long-term user engagement remains a challenge. This paper explores whether respiration biosignal feedback and mindfulness skill estimation enhance system usability and skill development. We develop a smartphone's accelerometer-based respiration tracking algorithm, eliminating the need for additional wearables. Unlike existing methods, our approach accurately captures slow breathing patterns typical of mindfulness meditation. Additionally, we introduce the first quantitative framework to estimate mindfulness skills-concentration, sensory clarity, and equanimity-based on accelerometer-derived respiration data. We develop and test our algorithms on 261 mindfulness sessions in both controlled and real-world settings. A user study comparing an experimental group receiving biosignal feedback with a control group using a standard app shows that respiration feedback enhances system usability. Our respiration tracking model achieves a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.6 breaths per minute, closely aligning with ground truth data, while our mindfulness skill estimation attains F1 scores of 80-84% in tracking skill progression. By integrating respiration tracking and mindfulness estimation into a commercial app, we demonstrate the potential of smartphone sensors to enhance digital mindfulness training.