Alexz Farrall, a Ph.D. student from the University of Bath’s Department of Computer Science, has invented a shape-shifting soft ball designed to personify breathing and help improve mental health outcomes.
Named the Physical Artifact for Well-being Support (PAWS), this invention provides a tangible focus for mindful breathing practices, a technique known to alleviate anxiety and foster well-being.
How It Works
PAWS expands and contracts synchronously with the user’s breath, providing a tactile and visual cue that helps to focus attention.
The technology operates through haptic feedback and sensors that transmit respiratory data to the ball, allowing it to adjust its shape accordingly.
Farrall’s research showed that those who used the ball experienced a 75% reduction in anxiety and a 56% increase in resilience against worry-induced thoughts.
Groundbreaking Results
In studies conducted, the PAWS ball outperformed traditional guided meditation audio recordings in reducing anxiety and increasing Heart Rate Variability, a marker for emotional regulation and stress resilience.
This has implications for disciplines that involve mindful breathing techniques, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and trauma-focused therapies.
Addressing the Gap in Mental Health Care
Mindfulness and breathing-focused apps often suffer from high dropout rates, and many mental health interventions demand a level of sustained attention that individuals find difficult to maintain.
The PAWS ball aims to address these issues by offering a more engaging, tactile form of therapy that keeps users focused on their mental well-being.
The aim is to not only be a tool for professionals but also to benefit private individuals.
Plans are in place to make PAWS wireless through the use of Bluetooth technology and smart geometric structures.
Additionally, larger studies involving mental health experts are planned to further validate the efficacy of the PAWS ball as a mental health tool.
Conclusion
The simplicity of the PAWS concept, personifying breath as a physical object, has the potential to revolutionize mental health care delivery and outcomes.
By making mindfulness and breathing exercises more accessible and engaging, PAWS offers a promising avenue for improving mental health both in clinical settings and for home users.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about how to prevent cognitive decline, and commonly used mental drugs may harm cognitive functions.
For more information about mental health, please see recent studies about healthier heart linked to better cognitive functions, and results showing mental health drugs may double death risk in people with heart disease.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
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