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.

As we constantly seek to improve and expand upon the capabilities of technology, we frequently wonder whether we use technology to its fullest extent. Studies indicate that increasing our awareness and mindfulness of our senses may lead to a journey of unexplored experiences. In this paper, we focus on the perception of mid-air haptics stimuli and whether it can be improved through mindfulness meditation. We have conducted an experiment with 22 participants given the task to recognize digits 0 to 9 drawn on their palms using a mid-air haptic device under two conditions - with and without prior mindfulness meditation. Results show that for frequencies targeting both Meissner (40 Hz) and Pacinian (200 Hz) receptors, meditation significantly improves performance of the participants, as well as increases their confidence. This suggests that including a short meditation step in haptic user interfaces could lead to improved system performance and user satisfaction.