Along with a designer, scientists, businesses, students, and the DesignLab University of Twente, Danielle Roberts was working on a plan to develop a high-tech meditation kit that measures the correlation between the quality of meditation and environmental factors.
He designed the kit in order to examine how environmental factors affect the quality of one’s meditation. It consists of a proprietary software platform (‘the Dataserver’), which stores and analyses qualitative and quantitative meditation data.
The suits work on an algorithm that helps understand the meditator better and better over time. Using Internet of Things technology, the dataserver automatically adjusts the environmental factor to create the perfect meditation experience.
At first instance, this high-tech meditation kit looks like a shortened version of the habit a monk or nun would wear. Robert specifically used natural materials to deliberate classical touch. The showpiece is the Silence Suit, a high-tech meditation outfit equipped with biometric and environmental sensors.
The Silence Suit is made of natural materials, for example, unadulterated fleece and a thick/modular blend. The casings are printed with PLA, a fiber made with lactic acid. With its nine sensors, the suit gives insights into aspects, for example, posture, breathing, heart rate, and the weight between one’s fingers and their connection to the nature of the contemplation.
Robert explained, “Most electronic components are readily available at any electronics webshop. This makes it easy to replace or upgrade the components. We chose these components deliberately. We want to make the suit and the software available to others via Open Source.”
“Combining spirituality and technology is a touchy subject. Nevertheless, the meditation world is “curious” about the kit. My experiments were filled in the blink of an eye. People are curious about their meditation data. They say the suit is quite comfortable, despite how many electronic components it has. Personally, the Silence Suit helps me to become more aware of the intentions and results of her meditation.”
Robert is further planning to conduct more intensive experiments by measuring other factors such as sound and scent. She is also planning to make the kit available via open source and create artistic visualizations of the meditation data.