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Hardware Accelerator Team Introduces Virtual Reality to Help Students Practice Mindfulness Meditation

Team Spect

Hardware Accelerator Team Introduces Virtual Reality to Help Students Practice Mindfulness Meditation

Meditation has been proven to help manage anxiety, depression, and stress, but people are often intimidated by how difficult it can be to jump into the practice of meditation. Spect is taking traditional meditation practices and combining them with modern technology to create an entirely new way to practice mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness meditation focuses on the present moment, paying attention to how your body is feeling, breathing, and managing emotions. With the help of a Virtual Reality platform, Spect has created an incredibly immersive experience that utilizes biofeedback visualization to envision physiological responses in real time and adapts guiding audio to user’s physiological responses based on the biofeedback collected.

Deanna Deyhim, Xiaoxiang Ma, Kristi Lin, and Yassin Mziya, Cornell University students and team members of Spect, are excited to be a part of Rev: Ithaca Startup Work’s Hardware Accelerator  Summer 2018  to show the full spectrum of what VR can offer and the positive life changing benefits of meditation.

“It’s not about being the final solution, it’s about meeting each person where they are in their practice and helping them reach the next step,” said Deyhim.

During the Hardware Accelerator, Spect has identified their target market, received advice from seasoned entrepreneurs, learned how to receive funding for their project, and used Rev’s prototyping lab to develop their custom VR headsets.

Spect will introduce their technology to children in grades K-12 as a way to supplement social-emotional learning at an early age and serve as an outlet to appropriately handle stress. By the end of the Hardware Accelerator, Spect plans to work with local teachers this fall and pilot with a larger district in the spring.

“Social-emotional learning should be a standard in our educational system,” said Deyhim.

Spect will present their prototype and progress with their business plans on August 9th, 2018 at Rev’s Hardware Accelerator Demo Day.