Respire: Virtual reality art with musical agent guided by respiratory interaction

Abstract

Respire is an immersive art piece that brings together three components: An immersive virtual reality (VR) environment, embodied interaction (via a breathing sensor) and a musical agent system to generate unique experiences of augmented breathing. The breathing sensor controls the user’s vertical elevation of the point of view under and over the virtual ocean. The frequency and patterns of breathing data guide the arousal of the musical agent, and the waviness of a virtual ocean in the environment. Respire proposes an intimate exploration of breathing through an intelligent mapping of breathing data to the parameters of visual and sonic environments.