Realm of Mind

Students across CMU are constantly stressed; with all their projects and exams every week, it becomes difficult to take some time to breathe and take care of our well being. Realm of Mind does exactly that! It helps students take just a few minutes out of their time to clear their mind and work or study more efficiently. Realm of Mind is a relaxation tool that can be placed in stressful study areas around campus like Hunt Library, Gates, and Tepper. This can be installed in a fairly quiet area in these areas to allow stressed students to walk through and then just take a few minutes to clear their mind and breath. The design is made so that students can go and sit in the circle for some peace, but upon entry, the ambient effect takes over. The lights will start to fade in and out to signal to the user how they should breathe. Using techniques taught in meditation classes, the Realm of Mind has the user breath in as the light fades in and breaths out as the lights fade out. Once the student has relaxed and is ready to get back to work, they can just exit the circle and the light will stop fading in and out. The goal is that students will be able to take a few minutes whenever they are working and stressed to take care of their well being and just relax so they can work with a clearer mind.

Below is the workflow

Throughout this whole project, we realized circuitry isn’t simply just hooking up an assortment of electronic pieces together in series and expect our proposed solution to work seamlessly. Originally, we planned on delivering the product that actually modeled the lungs with an air pump and a balloon. As the user is supposed to breathe in, the balloon inflates, and as the user is supposed to breathe out, the balloon deflates. We were able to make a working prototype of this in class, however, there was one glaring issue: we were designing something to help people relax and the rumbling sound of the air pump just made the product ineffective at being soothing and calm. Since this was an issue, we weren’t able to mitigate as easily, we decided to go on a different approach, using a medium that didn’t emit too much sound: light. So, then we decided to use lights to signal how the user should regulate their breathing, but this is when we bumped into another set of problems. The Particleboard outputs 3V but our proximity sensor used about 5 V and the lights we were planning on using for our design used 12 V. So we had to implement voltage dividers throughout our design to get the lights to function and the proximity sensor to collect data. In the end, we ended up encountering one last roadblock in the form of the lights not functioning as we intended. When debugging all the values we were searching for showed up when using the serial out - the distance and brightness were always being recorded as the right value; however, when it came to the light actually turning out, they just didn’t despite our attempts to get it to function.

Bill of Parts

Argon

10k Resistor

5.1k Resistor

1 m IR Distance Sensor

5 V Regulator

12 V Regulator

3 meters of strips lights

15 Jumper Cables

2 Breadboard

3 Screw Terminal Blocks

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <neopixel.h>

#define PIXEL_PIN D2
#define PIXEL_COUNT 150
#define PIXEL_TYPE WS2812B

Adafruit_NeoPixel strip(PIXEL_COUNT, PIXEL_PIN, PIXEL_TYPE);

// Prototypes for local build, ok to leave in for Build IDE
void rainbow(uint8_t wait);
uint32_t Wheel(byte WheelPos);
int distance = A0;
int brightness = 0;
int fadeAmount = -5;
int waitTime = 100;

void setup() {
  pinMode(distance, INPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
  strip.begin();
  strip.show(); // Initialize all pixels to 'off'
}

void loop() {
    int dist = analogRead(distance);
    Serial.print("distance is:"); Serial.println(dist); Serial.println();
    if (dist > 670){
        Serial.print("made into loop with brightness:"); Serial.println(brightness);
        rainbow(waitTime);
        if (brightness < 5 || brightness >= 255) {
            fadeAmount = -fadeAmount;
        }
        
        brightness = brightness + fadeAmount;
    } else {
        rainbow(waitTime);
    }
    delay(waitTime);
}

void rainbow(uint8_t wait) {
  uint16_t i, j;
  
    for(i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
      uint32_t c = strip.Color(brightness, brightness, brightness);
      strip.setPixelColor(i, c);
    }
  
    strip.show();
}

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It is an inflated lighting hoop that guides breath. This lighting hoop is to be placed in public areas on campus and invite people to stop and walk in to meditate. Realm of Mind intents to give CMUers who hustle to get through work and life a breathing moment, where they are invited to meditate and restore energy. When a person walks in the hoop, the hoop will light up. The lighting pattern imitates the flow of breathing meditation. People are invited to follow the lighting pattern and adjust their breath.

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Found In

Creative Assignment #2- Ambient Affect

Courses

49313 Designing for the Internet of Things

· 11 members
Thermostats, locks, power sockets, and lights are all being imbued with smarts making them increasingly aware and responsive to their environment and users. This course will chart the emergence of ...more

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This lighting hoop is to be placed in public areas on campus and invite people to stop and walk in to meditate. Realm of Mind intents to give CMUers who hustle to get through work and life a breathing moment, where they are invited to meditate and restore energy. When a person walks in the hoop, the hoop will light up. The lighting pattern imitates the flow of breathing meditation. People are invited to follow the lighting pattern and adjust their breath.