Zenscape

https://github.com/Imwangi-code/XRFinal-Project

Project Overview

Our project is a customized, accessible Mixed Reality (MR) meditation experience built specifically for the Apple Vision Pro. We wanted to explore how spatial computing can be utilized to improve user wellness. The experience begins with an eye-level spatial UI that allows users to customize their meditation based on their current mood (Anxious, Tired, Stressed, or Creative) and the amount of time they have. To transition into the meditative state, the user leverages raw hand-tracking to physically "draw a door" in their space, acting as a magical portal into their customized, safe skybox environment.

The Development Process & Self-Organization

Our group began by discussing overlapping interests, ultimately focusing on the intersection of meditation, spatial wellness, and the Vision Pro’s unique capabilities—specifically breath tracking and hand tracking. We subdivided tasks based on our individual strengths and add-on ideas for the initial concept:

• Parissa spearheaded the breath-tracking mechanics, successfully getting the core logic working within the first few days of development.
• Inayah took the lead as the Environment Developer, focusing on the skybox, dynamic lighting, and transforming the user's mixed reality room into a customized, safe, and calming space.
• Riddhi focused on the experimental hand-tracking interactions, specifically building the logic and execution for the "draw a door" portal aspect.
• Kai managed the audio engineering, syncing the coaching elements, ambient loops, and ensuring the voiceover maintained a comforting, human touch.

Successes

We successfully integrated several highly experimental interactions into a single cohesive flow. Parissa's rapid implementation of the breath tracking allowed us to playtest early. Riddhi's "draw a door" mechanic pushed the boundaries of standard UI, turning a simple line-renderer into a magical, physical transition. Furthermore, the modular environment system allowed us to instantly swap the visual and auditory tone of the entire space based purely on user input.

Challenges

Developing for the Apple Vision Pro presented several intense technical hurdles. We faced heavy limits with Apple's provisioning profiles, which temporarily locked us out of building the headset. This forced our team to self-organize and architect the app "blind" for a period, relying entirely on bulletproof C# logic and static data variables to pass information between scenes without testing it in the headset. We also had to untangle deep dependency conflicts within the XR Interaction Toolkit. Visually, we battled issues with skybox patchiness and rendering artifacts, which required careful material adjustments.

What We Learned (Beta Playtesting)

Our beta playtesting was incredibly eye-opening, particularly regarding user experience and spatial instructions. While the breath-tracking sphere (which changes color and grows as you breathe) was technically successful, it caused cognitive overload for the users. Playtesters were confused about whether they should follow the coaching audio or the visual sphere, and whether the ball was reacting to them or instructing them. This taught us a critical lesson in spatial computing: visual and auditory cues must be perfectly aligned and instantly intuitive, otherwise, they cause stress—the exact opposite of our app's goal.

The Future of Spatial Computing & Future Revisions

Our biggest takeaway is that the future of spatial computing lies in the detection of micro-movements and passive biometric integration. As headsets become more advanced, they won't just track where our hands are; they will track the subtle expansion of our chests, our heart rates, and our pupillary responses.

In the field of wellness, this means apps will shift from being "guided" to being "responsive." Instead of a user pressing a button to say they are anxious, the headset will detect their shallow breathing and automatically shift the room's lighting to cooler, calming tones while fading in soothing audio. For future revisions of this app, we would refine the skybox rendering, smooth out the breath-tracking UI to make it passively responsive rather than instructional, and further expand the hand-tracked drawing tools to let users paint their entire calm space into existence.

FIGMA PRESENATION