skip to main content
10.1145/3483529.3483535acmotherconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesartechConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

TranScent in Stillness: Exploring the Feasibility of Using Incense Art with Virtual Reality for Meditation

Published: 20 February 2022 Publication History

Abstract

The need of supporting meditation through digital technology has been increased especially after COVID-19. By combining the olfactory experience provided by the ambient incense connected with virtual reality technology, we propose to bring the aesthetic and affective aspects of smell to the users for meditation in the digital era. TranScent aims to provide users a hybrid composition of sensory experiences that transcends the spatial and temporal characteristics in their surroundings. It lets the users meditate with the incense burnt in the real world while immersing in the audiovisual virtual environment. Rather than emphasizing on the mobility in fast pace, it focuses on giving users the stillness atmosphere for meditation practice through olfactory art with virtual reality.

References

[1]
Diane Ackerman. 1991. A natural history of the senses. Vintage.
[2]
Zaid I. Almarzooq, Mathew Lopes, and Ajar Kochar. 2020. Virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: a disruptive technology in graduate medical education: 2635-2638.
[3]
Judith Amores and Pattie Maes. 2017. Essence: Olfactory interfaces for unconscious influence of mood and cognitive performance. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 28–34.
[4]
Thea Andersen, Gintare Anisimovaite, Anders Christiansen, Mohamed Hussein, Carol Lund, Thomas Nielsen, Eoin Rafferty, Niels C. Nilsson, Rolf Nordahl, and Stefania Serafin. 2017. A preliminary study of users' experiences of meditation in virtual reality. In 2017 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR), 343-344. IEEE.
[5]
Shawn Arthur. 2018. Wafting incense and heavenly foods: the importance of smell in Chinese religion. Body and Religion 2, no. 2: 144-166.
[6]
Dipayan Biswas and Courtney Szocs. 2019. The smell of healthy choices: Cross-modal sensory compensation effects of ambient scent on food purchases. Journal of Marketing Research 56, no. 1: 123-141.
[7]
Yan Yan Cao and Naohito Okude. 2015. Scented pebbles: interactive ambient experience with smell and lighting. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction . ACM, 409–410.
[8]
Sidney CH Cheung. 2020. The sublime in scent: a comparative study of Japanese Kodo and Chinese incense tradition in the 21st century. Asian Education and Development Studies.
[9]
Karen Anne Cochrane, Lian Loke, Andrew Campbell, Matthew Leete, and Naseem Ahmadpour. 2020. An Interactive Soundscape to Assist Group Walking Mindfulness Meditation. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Movement and Computing, 1-3.
[10]
Dmitrijs Dmitrenko, Emanuela Maggioni, and Marianna Obrist. 2018. I smell trouble: using multiple scents to convey driving-relevant information. In Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction, pp. 234-238.
[11]
Jim Drobnick. 1998. Reveries, assaults and evaporating presences: olfactory dimensions in contemporary art. Parachute, New York: Vintage, 89, 10–19.
[12]
Feelreal Sensory Mask. Retrieved May 3, 2021 from https://feelreal.com/
[13]
Paul Frewen, Divya Mistry, Jenney Zhu, Talia Kielt, Christine Wekerle, Ruth A. Lanius, and Rakesh Jetly. 2020. Proof of concept of an eclectic, integrative therapeutic approach to mental health and well-being through virtual reality technology. Frontiers in Psychology 11: 858.
[14]
Aileen Gatten. 1977. A Wisp of Smoke Scent and Character in the Tale of Genji. Monumenta Nipponica. 32 (1): 35 48.
[15]
Ting-Ting Geng, Tazeen Hasan Jafar, Jian-Min Yuan, and Woon-Puay Koh. 2019. Long-term incense use and the risk of end-stage renal disease among Chinese in Singapore: the Singapore Chinese health study. BMC nephrology 20, no. 1: 1-9.
[16]
Anna L Girard, Marcel Lichters, Marko Sarstedt, and Dipayan Biswas. 2019. The short and long-term effects of ambient scent in olfactory-rich servicescapes: a longitudinal perspective. ACR North American Advances.
[17]
Scott Habkirk and Hsun Chang. 2017. Scents, community, and incense in traditional Chinese religion. Material Religion 13, no. 2: 156-174.
[18]
Kevin Jiang. 2020. How COVID-19 Causes Loss of Smell. Harvard Medical School (July 2020). Retrieved Aug 1, 2021 from https://hms.harvard.edu/news/how-covid-19-causes-loss-smell
[19]
Yasuaki Kakehi, Motoshi Chikamori, and Kyoko Kunoh. 2010. hanahanahana. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Gallery, 396-397.
[20]
Alexandra Kitson, Ekaterina R. Stepanova, Ivan A. Aguilar, Natasha Wainwright, and Bernhard E. Riecke. 2020. Designing Mind (set) and Setting for Profound Emotional Experiences in Virtual Reality. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 655-668.
[21]
Mei-Kei Lai. 2018. The art of digital scent-people, space and time. Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts 10, no. 1: 29-42.
[22]
Zilan Lin, Kai Kunze, Atsuro Ueki, and Masa Inakage. 2020. AromaCue-A Scent Toolkit To Cope with Stress using the 4-7-8 Breathing Method. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, pp. 265-272.
[23]
Kate McLean. 2017. Communicating and mediating smellscapes: The design and exposition of olfactory mappings. Routledge.
[24]
Caroline McMillan. 2020. Aura: maton: A Wearable Olfactory Display for Immersive Scentscapes. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, 677-682.
[25]
Divya Mistry, Jenney Zhu, Paul Tremblay, Christine Wekerle, Ruth Lanius, Rakesh Jetly, and Paul Frewen. 2020. Meditating in virtual reality: Proof-of-concept intervention for posttraumatic stress. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.
[26]
Kiyoko Morita. 2006. The book of incense: Enjoying the traditional art of Japanese scents. Kodansha International.
[27]
Takamichi Nakamoto, Tatsuya Hirasawa, and Yukiko Hanyu. 2020. Virtual environment with smell using wearable olfactory display and computational fluid dynamics simulation. In 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), 713-720. IEEE.
[28]
David Narciso, Miguel Melo, José Vasconcelos-Raposo, and Maximino Bessa. 2020. The impact of olfactory and wind stimuli on 360 videos using head-mounted displays. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception (TAP) 17, no. 1: 1-13.
[29]
Takuji Narumi. 2016. Multi-sensorial virtual reality and augmented human food interaction. In Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Multi-sensorial Approaches to Human-Food Interaction, 1-6.
[30]
María V. Navarro-Haro, Yolanda López-del-Hoyo, Daniel Campos, Marsha M. Linehan, Hunter G. Hoffman, Azucena García-Palacios, Marta Modrego-Alarcón, Luis Borao, Javier García-Campayo. 2017. Meditation experts try virtual reality mindfulness: a pilot study evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of Virtual Reality to facilitate mindfulness practice in people attending a Mindfulness conference. PLoS One 12:e0187777.
[31]
Marianna Obrist, Alexandre N Tuch, and Kasper Hornbaek. 2014. Opportunities for odor: experiences with smell and implications for technology. In Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems. ACM, 2843–2852.
[32]
Jorge Ortega-Moody, Yosselin Castro Islas, Levi Howell, Kouroush Jenab, and Victoria Russ. 2020. Design of A Virtual Reality Scenario and Scent Generator for Sensory Training. In Proceedings of the 2020 4th International Symposium on Computer Science and Intelligent Control, 1-6.
[33]
Osmodrama. Retrieved May 3, 2021 from http://osmodrama.com/
[34]
Portable Interactive Meditative Mirror. Retrieved May 3, 2021 from https://youtu.be/rsZ2GLxytuo/
[35]
Nimesha Ranasinghe, Pravar Jain, David Tolley, Shienny Karwita Tailan, Ching Chiuan Yen, and Ellen Yi-Luen Do. 2020. Exploring the Use of Olfactory Stimuli Towards Reducing Visually Induced Motion Sickness in Virtual Reality. In Symposium on Spatial User Interaction, 1-9.
[36]
Nimesha Ranasinghe, Koon Chuan Raymond Koh, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram, Yan Liangkun, Kala Shamaiah, Siew Geuk Choo, David Tolley 2019. Tainted: An olfaction-enhanced game narrative for smelling virtual ghosts. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 125: 7-18.
[37]
Giuseppe Riva and Brenda K. Wiederhold. 2020. How cyberpsychology and virtual reality can help us to overcome the psychological burden of coronavirus: 277-279.
[38]
Claudia Daudén Roquet and Corina Sas. 2020. Body Matters: Exploration of the Human Body as a Resource for the Design of Technologies for Meditation. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 533-546.
[39]
Mariana Sampaio, Maria Vicenta Navarro Haro, Bruno De Sousa, Wilson Vieira Melo, and Hunter G. Hoffman. 2021. Therapists Make the Switch to Telepsychology to Safely Continue Treating Their Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Virtual Reality Telepsychology May Be Next. Frontiers in virtual reality 1.
[40]
Sue Ann Seah, Diego Martinez Plasencia, Peter D. Bennett, Abhijit Karnik, Vlad Stefan Otrocol, Jarrod Knibbe, Andy Cockburn, and Sriram Subramanian. 2014. SensaBubble: a chrono-sensory mid-air display of sight and smell. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2863-2872.
[41]
#SelfCare. Retrieved Aug 1, 2021 from https://truluv.ai/
[42]
Larry Shiner, and Yulia Kriskovets. 2007. The aesthetics of smelly art. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 65, no. 3: 273-286.
[43]
Alessandro Siani and Sarah Anne Marley. 2021. Impact of the recreational use of virtual reality on physical and mental wellbeing during the Covid-19 lockdown. Health and Technology 11, no. 2 (2021): 425-435.
[44]
Ravi Pratap Singh, Mohd Javaid, Ravinder Kataria, Mohit Tyagi, Abid Haleem, and Rajiv Suman. 2020. Significant applications of virtual reality for COVID-19 pandemic. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews 14, no. 4: 661-664.
[45]
Jacek Sliwinski, Mary Katsikitis, Christian Martyn Jones. 2015. Mindful Gaming: How Digital Games Can Improve Mindfulness. In Proceedings of the Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT’15). Springer. 167–184.
[46]
Sara Lei Sparre and Lise Paulsen Galal. 2018. Incense and holy bread: the sense of belonging through ritual among Middle Eastern Christians in Denmark. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 44, no. 16: 2649-2666.
[47]
Charles Spence. 2020. Scenting the Anosmic Cube: On the Use of Ambient Scent in the Context of the Art Gallery or Museum. i-Perception 11, no. 6: 1-26.
[48]
Charles Spence. 2020. Using ambient scent to enhance well-being in the multisensory built environment. Frontiers in Psychology 11.
[49]
Tomomi Takezawa, Kenji Katahira, Yuna Kanki, Masashi Sugimoto, Kazuo Shibuta, Noriko Nagata, Masayoshi Chiba, Kazuki Hamaoka, Megumi Fukatsu, and Satoshi Kataoka. 2020. Structure of psychological stress during the COVID-19 pandemic and effects of essential oil odor exposure. In Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems, pp. 784-785.
[50]
Luca Turin. 2006. The secret of scent: adventures in perfume and the science of smell. Faber & Faber.
[51]
Daisuke Uriu, William Odom, Mei-Kei Lai, Sai Taoka, and Masahiko Inami. 2018. SenseCenser: an interactive device for sensing incense smoke & supporting memorialization rituals in Japan. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems, 315-318.
[52]
Yeleti Bunny Venkat, M. Rakshantha, S. Sanjana, and B. T. Kannan. 2019. Smoldering of incense stick under the influence of wetness and orientation. In AIP Conference Proceedings, vol. 2161, no. 1, p. 020036. AIP Publishing LLC.
[53]
Wait – Games for Change. 2013. Retrieved Aug 1, 2021 from https://www.gamesforchange.org/game/wait/
[54]
Madison Waller, Divya Mistry, Rakesh Jetly, and Paul Frewen. 2021. Meditating in Virtual Reality 3: 360° Video of Perceptual Presence of Instructor. Mindfulness: 1-14.
[55]
Virendra Kumar Yadav, Pankaj Kumar, Haresh Kalasariya, Nisha Choudhary, Bijendra Singh, G. Gnanamoorthy, Nitin Gupta, Samreen Heena Khan, and Areeba Khayal. 2020. The Current Scenario of Indian Incense Sticks Market and Their Impact on the Indian Economy. Indian Journal of Pure & Applied Biosciences 8, no. 3: 627-636.
[56]
Anna Yokokubo, Mudmee Chaichirawiwat, Guillaume Lopez, Yasushi Matoba, Miku Ohno, and Itiro Siio. 2019. eGenjiko: Scent Matching Game using a Computer-Controlled Censer. In Extended Abstracts of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts, 789-795.
[57]
Nan Zeng, Zachary Pope, Jung Eun Lee, and Zan Gao. 2018. Virtual reality exercise for anxiety and depression: A preliminary review of current research in an emerging field. Journal of clinical medicine 7, no. 3: 42.

Cited By

View all
  • (2025)E-scent Coach: A Wearable Olfactory System to Guide Deep Breathing Synchronized with Yoga PosturesProceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3689050.3704927(1-14)Online publication date: 4-Mar-2025
  • (2025) MorphingScents : Fabricating Thin, Flexible, and Shape-Changing Odor-Emitting Mechanism for Interactive Olfactory Encounters International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.2443239(1-25)Online publication date: 15-Jan-2025
  • (2024)A Review of Olfactory Display Designs for Virtual Reality EnvironmentsACM Computing Surveys10.1145/366524356:11(1-35)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2024
  • Show More Cited By

Index Terms

  1. TranScent in Stillness: Exploring the Feasibility of Using Incense Art with Virtual Reality for Meditation
          Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

          Recommendations

          Comments

          Information & Contributors

          Information

          Published In

          cover image ACM Other conferences
          ARTECH '21: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts
          October 2021
          761 pages
          Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

          Publisher

          Association for Computing Machinery

          New York, NY, United States

          Publication History

          Published: 20 February 2022

          Permissions

          Request permissions for this article.

          Check for updates

          Author Tags

          1. Incense
          2. Meditation
          3. Olfactory Experience
          4. Scent
          5. Virtual reality

          Qualifiers

          • Research-article
          • Research
          • Refereed limited

          Funding Sources

          • Macao Polytechnic Institute

          Conference

          ARTECH 2021

          Acceptance Rates

          Overall Acceptance Rate 128 of 238 submissions, 54%

          Contributors

          Other Metrics

          Bibliometrics & Citations

          Bibliometrics

          Article Metrics

          • Downloads (Last 12 months)80
          • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)4
          Reflects downloads up to 28 Feb 2025

          Other Metrics

          Citations

          Cited By

          View all
          • (2025)E-scent Coach: A Wearable Olfactory System to Guide Deep Breathing Synchronized with Yoga PosturesProceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3689050.3704927(1-14)Online publication date: 4-Mar-2025
          • (2025) MorphingScents : Fabricating Thin, Flexible, and Shape-Changing Odor-Emitting Mechanism for Interactive Olfactory Encounters International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.2443239(1-25)Online publication date: 15-Jan-2025
          • (2024)A Review of Olfactory Display Designs for Virtual Reality EnvironmentsACM Computing Surveys10.1145/366524356:11(1-35)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2024
          • (2024)Still Not a Lot of Research? Re-Examining HCI Research on Religion and SpiritualityExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3651058(1-15)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
          • (2024)Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Virtual Reality Training on Stress, Anxiety, and Depression among Chinese University StudentsMindfulness10.1007/s12671-024-02335-415:4(899-913)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2024

          View Options

          Login options

          View options

          PDF

          View or Download as a PDF file.

          PDF

          eReader

          View online with eReader.

          eReader

          HTML Format

          View this article in HTML Format.

          HTML Format

          Figures

          Tables

          Media

          Share

          Share

          Share this Publication link

          Share on social media