The Breathing Garment - Exploring Breathing-Based Interactions through Deep Touch Pressure

Deep touch pressure is used to treat sensory processing difficulties by applying a firm touch to the body to stimulate the nervous system and soothe anxiety. I conducted a long-term exploration of deep touch pressure from a first-person perspective, using shape-changing pneumatic actuators, breathing and ECG sensors to investigate whether deep touch pressure can guide users in semi-autonomous interactions with their breathing and encourage greater introspection and body awareness. Based on an initial collaborative material exploration, I designed the breathing garment - a wearable vest which guides the wearer through deep breathing techniques. This work addresses a gap in HCI research around the subjective experience of deep touch pressure and biosensing. The long-term, felt engagement with different breathing techniques opened up a rich design space around pressure-based actuation in the context of breathing. This rendered several experiential qualities of the shape-changing pneumatic actuators, such as: applying subtly changing pressure to draw attention to specific body parts, but also disrupting the habitual way of breathing with asynchronous and asymmetric actuation patterns; taking on a leading or following role in the interaction; and acting as a communication channel between two people as well as between one person and their soma.