The Breathing Room by Arigami

Arigami is an award-winning research studio working alongside a network of scientists, immersive technologists, and designers developing wellness-led sensory initiatives across a wide range of industries.

Arigami joined SimDH in early 2020. The collaboration will test the effectiveness of Arigami's voice-guided rhythmic breathing experience, the 'Breathing Room'. Arigami developed the ‘Breathing Room’ as an immersive platform dedicated to helping people build resilience combining guided breath-work, immersive sound, biofeedback and generative art experiences.

The Breathing Room is a joint project between Arigami and: Silentmode, Breathonics, Spyras, and SVAIY ART, as well as Tom Middleton, immersive sound composer.

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Why is this innovative? 

The effects of guided meditation are well-observed, but very little research has been committed to discovering how this can be aided through immersive technology, such as 3D rendering and soundscapes.

The Breathing Room combines these technologies with guided meditation and gentle gamification to create the ultimate relaxation experience.

How are SimDH helping?

SimDH will be measuring the effectiveness of the experience in reducing stress. The project is due to being in 2021.

Arigami founder and director, Ari, told us more about his unique business and the collaborative project.

Describe your innovation in a sentence? 

We are developing simulated health ecosystems designed to help mitigate anxiety using a combination of generative art, rhythmic breathing, multisensory gamification and AI.

How did you discover the issue your innovation addresses?

Anxiety is a global concern, affective millions of people around the world - including us. We wanted to empower others with the tools and knowledge to transform anxiety into productivity by using an evidence-based approach to wellness that was fun and engaging.

When did you start working with the SimDH team, and what have you achieved so far?

We began working with SimDH in early 2020. So far, we have fine-turned our proposition, narrowed down scope of research and finalised our research design, thanks to the help and input from the incredible team of researchers and academics available through the SimDH programme.

What has been a challenge or an obstacle in your product development?

COVID-19 has slowed down the process. Thankfully our SimDH team have been very responsive and has adapted quickly to the virtual setting, allowing us to maintain momentum on our project at a time when we have even more need and drive to tackle anxiety.

What are the benefits of working with SimDH for you?

Working with SimDH has made us better entrepreneurs, and better researchers. The SimDH team continuously challenges you to develop more clear and concise concepts that can actually make it into market.

By combining our industry knowledge and their extensive research and academic expertise, we have created an interdisciplinary team that is a unique and exiting position of being able to tackle a global challenge together, to create a scientific and evidence-based innovation that can be directly and rapidly activated in the public domain.

We have been able to build bridges between academia and industry that we hope will just be the start of many projects and dialogues that can accelerate innovation in the UK.

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Top Left: Ari Peralta, Director & Founder of Arigami, who are developing The Breathing Room;
Top Right: Tom Middleton, award-winning Functional Sound Designer and Composer, who's providing immersive sound for the Breathing Room;
Bottom Left: Stuart Sandeman, Breath coach and founder of Breathpod;
Bottom Right: Bradley Dowding-Young, creator of Breathonics, who's providing the voice-guided meditation aspect of the Breathing Room.‍

Not Pictured: George Winfield, Founder & CEO of Spyras, the technology used to measure breathing in the Breathing Room; Vadym Lorens, Founder & CEO of SVAIY ART, who's providing the generative art experience of the Breathing Room

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Find out more about Arigami by visiting their website, or connect with Ari Peralta on Linkedin.