Dis/Immersion in Mindfulness Meditation with a Wandering Voice Assistant

A voice-based virtual assistant that moves its location along the body during guided meditation can create simultaneous feelings of immersion and dis-immersion. Researchers developed a multi-speaker system embedded in a yoga mat that shifts sound to different body areas as the meditation progresses, comparing it to a fixed smart speaker in interviews with twelve people. The wandering voice embodiment offers new design possibilities for guidance tasks beyond meditation, though the experience is not uniformly positive.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mindfulness meditation is a validated means of helping people manage stress. Voice-based virtual assistants (VAs) in smart speakers, smartphones, and smart environments can assist people in carrying out mindfulness meditation through guided experiences. However, the common fixed location embodiment of VAs makes it difficult to provide intuitive support. In this work, we explored the novel embodiment of a "wandering voice" that is co-located with the user and "moves" with the task. We developed a multi-speaker VA embedded in a yoga mat that changes location along the body according to the meditation experience. We conducted a qualitative user study in two sessions, comparing a typical fixed smart speaker to the wandering VA embodiment. Thick descriptions from interviews with twelve people revealed sometimes simultaneous experiences of immersion and dis-immersion. We offer design implications for "wandering voices" and a new paradigm for VA embodiment that may extend to guidance tasks in other contexts.