Mindful touch: Mid-air haptics facilitates novices’ subjective experiences of audio-guided mindfulness meditation

With perpetually stressful lives, people are prompted to consider slowing down through mindfulness meditation. We extend HCI research beyond its pre-existing focus on interaction-intensive meditation technologies, to focus simply on whether one’s sense of touch can facilitate meditation. We capitalise on the touchless nature of mid-air haptics by rendering subtle sensations on the palm during meditation, using one design derived from pilot testing. In a novel and exploratory between-subjects study, we compare audio versus audio-haptic guidance in adult novices’ mindfulness meditation, through a mixed methods approach which combines standardised questionnaires with micro-phenomenological interviews (n=10 per group). Interestingly, mid-air haptics quantitatively increased both hindrance and relaxation, which appears conflicting but is actually complementary when considered together with qualitative analysis. Specifically, mid-air haptics initially distracted participants but eventually facilitated mindfulness through three processes (embodied metaphor, breath alignment, and meditative grounding), though this requires further validation. We reflect on the need for future work exploring an integrated, multimodal meditation experience.