Breathing new life into the yoga experience

A unique new architectural environment for people who practice yoga and meditation is planning to take this ancient discipline into the digital era. 'ExoBuilding' is a piece of adaptive architecture which has been designed and built by a team of scientists and architects at The University of Nottingham. The project has been pioneered by the University's Mixed Reality Lab , which creates interactive technologies to enhance everyday life and is partially supported by the EPSRC Orchid project and the Horizon Digital Economy Hub. 'ExoBuilding' is a tent-like structure that changes its height, volume and shape according to its inhabitant's real-time physiological data. Occupants are wired up to heart and breathing monitors and the structure is driven by servomotors that receive and translate the signals through a platform called the Equator Component Toolkit, also designed at Nottingham. Science meets spirituality. Initial testing and research on the effect of this physiologically-driven smart environment revealed some striking reactions from users in the form of slowed breathing rates and improved heart rate patterns.