I asked around for some information through qualitative research about who is willing or has thought of learning the sign language. Basically to get to know if there is an interest in getting educated in and on sign language or if there is no need for such a tool. The structure of the questionary did not follow a concrete form and I was adjusting my follow up questions by the answers which were given to me.
The following questions appeared most of the times:
Were you ever interested in learning sign language? Yes/No if yes: Why did/do you want to learn it? open answer if did not learn it yet: Why did you not learn it yet? open answer How did you learn it (instructor, YouTube, apps, other options) open answer How did you improve the most? open answer Do you generally learn new languages and if so how? open answer Do you have someone in your surroundings you would require to use sign language to communicate with them? Yes/No and open answer How old are you and where are you from? open answer
Outcome
The following answers give a short insight into the interest situation. The presented persons refer to the people interested in sign language and one participant who has learned it.
Person A, 27 years old female:
Her friend wrote a paper about the topic of sign language accompanied by a photo exhibition. She became interested in the topic trough that but she did not start to learn it because she would not know with whom she might practice speaking without letting the learned signs fall into oblivion. She is planning on learning the most important signs like “hello”, “how are you?” and other most common conversation pieces on her own so that she can at least communicate like in the other languages with these simple sentences. Because she is interested in the topic she thinks the tool would be helpful to get to know a few sentences but thinks it is difficult if the person who wants to learn it does not have someone in the surrounding to talk to in sign language because there is no motivation if you do not know if you will really deploy it to communicate with another person.
Person B, 52 years old female:
She thought about learning it about a hundred times since she was a child. Her aunt is deaf and she was willing to learn it, not just because of her aunt but in general because she is interested in the language, but has never done it. Her aunt can read lips and person B learned to articulate clearly to make the communication easier so it was not necessary to learn it even though she had somebody in her surrounding she could communicate through sign language. She explains that her laziness is in her way even when trying to learn spoken languages like English.
Person C, 25 years old female:
She is interested in the language, since you can communicate with many people all over the world as well because she is interested to learn a language only based on movements, gesture and mimic. She has no one in her surroundings where she would require to use sign language. So far, she has only learned spoken languages because she really loves the melodic sound of the different languages which she has learned mostly in school and in university. She improved the most by spending time in the countries where she had to speak the language.
Person D, 26 years old male:
Has learned sign language when he was 18 because he thinks it is important to know how to communicate with all people and sign language is in his opinion a really universal language. He knew someone who was communication trough sign language and used to work with Org which in his opinion is always useful. He learned a couple of gestures and hand positions with the help of YouTube and a foundation that teaches the language. He did not improve much because he did not practice.
Conclusion
In conclusion the questionary helped me as a first little step to understand the position and situation of possible users and which difficulties or behavior stands in the way. Most of the time people are interested but their own laziness or absence of the need to learn it because there is no one in their community who can not speak spoken language as well as if they would be interested in it and learn it they would not have somebody to exercise it with. It is clear that both people of unspoken and people of spoken languages stay in their own communities and communicate with each other as it is a lot easier and the empathy is higher most of the times. This is why the persons I have asked for this questionary as well and which were not even interested in learning sign language were naming reasons like that as well because they see no need for it and do not need it for communication. In order to not forget the whole picture it could be possible to implement different features into the tool that stand against these difficulties for example a buddy-feature where people can connect and exchange. Which of the solutions for such problems will be necessary or helpful will be discussed within the next months after more insight through the next steps as this questinary shall not be interpreted as representative due to the number, gender and age of the participants.
Next steps will be needed like a more precise as well as quantitative questionary to get to know the needs from actual users who have to learn it, different approaches in learning and many more to get as much information as possible.
One of biggest concerns around my app is the possibilities to have levels or kinds of meditation. In my intern investigation I look that most of the apps in the market have a focus on different kind of meditations instead of levels. So, I started wondering what a user will like more an app with levels or an app with different kind of meditations guide.
Levels
Only a few users told me that they prefer levels over types of meditation. The main reason for this is the time. Most of the people I interviewed told me that they need something that focuses on a specific topic so it is easier for them to follow.
Kind
My interviewers told me that they prefer different kinds of meditation with a guide, sounds and timer. The reason for this is that is easier for them to be a focus on only one topic. This means that they prefer for example only a simple guide for sleeping and maybe a second step if they find it useful.
Also they try to used meditation for one thing in specific for example work, love, partnership, mindfulness and more. With a focus is easy for the user to keep tracking into the app, because they can get what they are looking for in no long time.
Even though I still think that having a mix of level and kinds can be good for the app. The mix of it can result in a good balance in development and focus in your life.
First, I need to register a stream of data in an array. For example, data from the X-axis of a rigid body (in OptiTrack, motion capture system) for 10 seconds.
Then it is necessary to save the data of this array in a text file so that this data can be read out each time the patch is started and rearranged in the array. In this way the specific movement, or better our reference movement, is saved and automatically loaded into the patch every time.
The next step is to create a RingBuffer, a buffer that continuously records the product data. This must be at least as large as the data set that we want to recognize.
The RingBuffer Slider can look into the past so that it can correlate everything with the reference signal.
For example, I set the data resampling to a rate of 8.333 milliseconds, since the data I’m usicing are coming from OptiTrack, and they reach a maximum of 120 fps. This means 1000/120 = 8.333.
This is the interval between one sample and another.
Another index reads both arrays at the same time, which are first multiplied and then their results are added.
The final result indicates the degree of correlation, the higher this number, the higher the correlation.
In this way, we can set a threshold to establish the minimum acceptable level of correlation, so that we can decide how similar the 2 data streams have to be to generate an output.
One problem that could arise is the continuous output trigger when this value is set too low.
This can be solved, however, by setting a delay that defines the time after which this trigger can be shifted, or by triggering a number immediately after starting the loops in order to set the threshold value to a very high value, which with Cross-correlation is unattainable.
It should be noted, however, that comparing more data streams to have a more precise correlation (for example X, Y and Z axes) can cause computational problems for the computer as a large data flow is continuously examined and compared.
Nach einem Test Typo direkt hartcodiert zu verarbeiten möchte ich nun Text extern einlesen. Für diesen Versuch möchte ich Daten/Text aus dem Internet abgreifen.
Zu meiner obigen Anforderung muss ich mir ein Anwendungsbeispiel überlegen.
Buchstaben/Wörter zählen?
Buchstaben/Wort-Statistiken vergleichen?
Nachdem keine Idee meinen Ansprüchen entsprochen hat, habe ich mir ein abstraktes Anwendungsbeispiel überlegt.
Matrix
Matrizen sind im Programmieren/Mathematik sehr bekannt, jedoch soll es in meinem Beispiel um eine Hommage an den Film „Matrix“ gehen. Die meisten kennen die Grün/Schwarze Matrix aus dem Kultfilm:
Nach einem Test Typo direkt hartcodiert zu verarbeiten möchte ich nun Text extern einlesen. Für diesen Versuch möchte ich Daten/Text aus dem Internet abgreifen.
Zu meiner obigen Anforderung muss ich mir ein Anwendungsbeispiel überlegen.
Buchstaben/Wörter zählen?
Buchstaben/Wort-Statistiken vergleichen?
Nachdem keine Idee meinen Ansprüchen entsprochen hat, habe ich mir ein abstraktes Anwendungsbeispiel überlegt.
Matrix
Matrizen sind im Programmieren/Mathematik sehr bekannt, jedoch soll es in meinem Beispiel um eine Hommage an den Film „Matrix“ gehen. Die meisten kennen die Grün/Schwarze Matrix aus dem Kultfilm:
Von Jamie Zawinski, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3792993
Mein Beispiel: Optical line/gradient illusion
Ziel:
Es soll Text/Zeichen aus einer Website geladen werden und im „klassischen“ Matrix Look dargestellt werden. Des Weiteren soll diese Matrix-Darstellung durch eine User-Interaktion ausgelöst werden.
Zusätzliche Testfälle
Gag / bzw. Easter Egg, immer wichtig bei geek projekten
Verschiedene Effekte anwenden
Umsetzung/Erkenntnisse:
Als erstes hole ich mir die Zeichen von einer Website, dies sollte in Processing mittels loadStrings() schnell realisierbar sein. Danach lege ich daraus eine Line-Matrix an und lösche alle non-ASCI Zeichen, control characters und non-printable Zeichen.
Nach einigen Ausgabe-Tests mit diesen Zeilen überlege ich mir die nächsten Schritte: Ich brauche die Zeilenaausgabe senkrecht, nicht horizontal.
Aus jeder Zeile erstelle ich nun ein eigenes Objekt (um meine OOP-Kenntnisse aufzufrischen). Jedes Objekt/Zeile darf nun selbst entscheiden von welcher Position an die Screen sie startet. Pro Zeile wird nun jedes Zeichen durch iteriert und auf entlang der Y-Achse ausgegeben. Nach einigen Tests merke ich, dass es für den originalen Look essentiell ist von welcher Position die Zeichenketten starten. So müssen etwa einige Zeichenketten im X-Minusbereich starten um ein vollständiges Bild zu erzielen.
*Spoiler alert* Als User-Interaktion fällt mir die Konversation zwischen Neo und Morpheus ein, in welcher er sich entscheiden muss, in welcher „Realität“ er weiterleben möchte. Symbolisch muss Neo zwischen einer roten Pille, oder einer blauen Pille wählen. Diese Entscheidung möchte ich in meiner Arbeit aufgreifen und den User entscheiden lassen.
by ADAMS
Zusätzliche Testfälle –Erkenntnisse:
Verschiedene Effekte anwenden
Ich habe mich für den Einsatz von preset-filtern entschieden. Manche funktionieren besser als andere und werden aufgrund der Menge sehr rechenintensiv. à Ruckler entstehen
Ich habe mich für Zwei entschieden, der User kann mittels B und E Taste den Filter switchen.
Filter1:
by ADAMS
Filter2:
by ADAMS
Gag/Easter Egg
Den Text für diese Matrix hole ich aus dem Wikipedia-Eintrag vom „Höhlengleichnis“
Pure Data (Pd) is a data flow programming language, which means that functions (objects) are linked (patched) in a graphical environment. This models the flow of controls and audio. For example, for a project I use the Motive software from OptiTrack on the computer in the experimental studio and as soon as I open the BatBat application and connect the network cable to my MacBook, I can receive the data in real time so that I can use it on my PureData patch that runs on mine Laptop.
The client application that I use, BatBat, is being made for the communication with a OSX system and I would say It’s pretty funny, because the first time NEVER work, so you have to close it and restart. It’s like that every single session!
After the correct connections have been made, the objects must be added in Pd that can receive this data and make it usable.
The first object in the chain is “netreceive”, which enables the reception of a data stream coming from a specific port, specifying the desired data type, in this case UDP (“datagram”) and the desired encoding type, in this case binary numbers.
The other objects in the chain are used to take the numeric list and interpret them as bytes, producing an output with Pd messages and then set up the route to use the OSC data with certain messages. In other words, to use the data from exactly the desired source.
The last step that is necessary in order to use this data is to unzip this data. The letter “f” post as an argument of the object indicates the production of a FloatNumber as output. There are 3 in which they correspond to the data on the X, Y and Z axes.
Now we are ready to use those data to control our parameters in Pd.
I’ve been thinking a lot about different styles and in which direction I want to go with my personal illustration style in the future. Because the option are endless I’ve settled on looking at artists and illustrators who’s work inspires me or speaks to me in some way at the moment.
The first Timothy Von Rueden (@vonnart) an independent artist from Wisconsin. His main focus is pencil drawings and I think his work is inspiring to me because of the way he uses light and shadows as well as white space to enhance his pieces. The way he uses the medium to his advantage creates dynamic drawing the capture the eyes (or mine at least). Another reason why his artwork always captures my interest is because of his attention to detail and his intricate subjects.
Nachdem ich mich letztes Semester mit künstlicher Intelligenz befasst habe, wollte ich dieses Semester ein neues Thema angehen. Rückblickend war es spannend, sich nicht bloß mit der Technologie zu befassen, sondern vielmehr die Auswirkungen auf unsere Gesellschaft zu deuten, sich eine eigene Meinung zu bilden und zu sehen, was die Technologie für mein Arbeitsfeld bedeutet.
Bisher hatte ich mich viel damit beschäftigt, in welche Richtung diese Recherche gehen soll, habe viele Texte gelesen und habe leider auch viel Zeit in Dinge reingesteckt, die ich wahrscheinlich nicht verwenden werde. Da ich bereits zu Beginn meiner Recherche zur künstlichen Intelligenz sicher war, dass dies eher eine Exkursion wird, wollte ich für dieses Semester zu meinem angestrebten Aufgabenfeld zurückfinden. Um vermitteln zu können, wo meine Recherche eigentlich hinführen soll, muss ich zunächst erklären, was ich in den letzten Jahren erarbeitet habe.
Generell arbeite ich gerne an Projekten, die Wissen vermitteln oder eine (meines Erachtens) wichtige Botschaft kommunizieren wollen. Dies war beispielsweise in den drei Projekten gegeben, die ich für eine Ausstellungsdesign-Firma in Hamburg angefertigt habe. Hier hatte ich festgestellt, dass ich nicht mehr nur Produkte oder Dienstleistungen verkaufen möchte, wie es bei vielen Agenturen, bei denen ich zuvor gearbeitet habe der Fall ist, sondern stattdessen Wissen, Erfahrungen und Empathie transportieren möchte. Die drei genannten Projekte waren interaktive Anwendungen für Museen oder Ausstellungen in verschiedenen Themenbereichen. Hierfür war es wichtig, sich gründlich in wissenschaftliche Themen einzuarbeiten und dieses Wissen sowohl fachlich als auch emotional in eine digitale Anwendung zu übersetzten. Ich hatte unglaublich viel Spaß an diesen Aufgaben und möchte aufgrund dessen weiter erfahren, wie wir Menschen uns Wissen aneignen, um in Zukunft dies bei der Implementierung von Anwendungen einfließen zu lassen.
Außerdem hatte ich mich in meiner Bachelorarbeit damit befasst, warum die meisten Menschen über den Klimawandel Bescheid wissen und davor Angst haben, aber nur die wenigsten wirklich aktiv etwas dagegen unternehmen. Hierzu habe ich die Diskrepanz zwischen diesem Wissen und Tun untersucht und wichtige Leitlinien erarbeiten können, die uns als Designer helfen können, positives Handeln hervorzurufen. Da auch in diesem Kontext, der/die NutzerIn die Möglichkeit hat, etwas dazu zu lernen – zwar nicht im Sinne von bloßer Information sondern vielmehr wie er/sie umweltfreundlicher den Alltag beschreiten kann – zählt auch diese Recherche zum Thema wie der Mensch lernt und wie man Wissen vermitteln kann. Dies wird in einem der folgenden Blogeinträgen nochmal wiederholt und vertieft.
Vipassana was taught in India more than 2500 years ago as a universal remedy for universal ills, i.e., an Art of Living.
In Pali, an ancient language of Buddhism, the word “Vipassana” means “seeing things as they really are.” The literal translation is “special seeing.”
Often, the term “Vipassana meditation” is used interchangeably with “mindfulness meditation,” but Vipassana is more specific. It involves observing your thoughts and emotions as they are, without judging or dwelling on them.
Vipassana, you simply observe your inner self instead of consciously controlling the experience. The goal is to help you:
Quiet your mind
Focus on the present
Accept thoughts, emotions, and sensations for what they really are
Reduce regrets by dwelling less on the past
Worry less about the future
Respond to situations based on reality, instead of worries or preconceived notions
Why it is better for a beginner?
Vipassana is a kind of meditation that doesn’t need much preparation to be done and it is a good starting point for a beginner because it is really easy to follow and to achieve.
That means that the guide for this kind of meditation can be optional. An app will be useful for the timer, sounds and in case of guide a guide. You can follow these steps to try to do it on your own.
Set aside 10 to 15 minutes to practice. It’s recommended that you do Vipassana when you first wake up in the morning.
Choose a quiet area with little to no distractions.
Sit in a comfortable position. Engage your core, straighten your back, and relax your body.
Close your eyes and breathe normally. Focus on your natural breath and what you feel.
Be mindful of each inhale and exhale. Observe your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without reacting or judging.
If you become distracted, simply observe the distraction and return to your breath.
Aim to do this for at least 5 to 10 minutes when you first start. As you get used to this practice, work up to 15 minutes or longer of Vipassana meditation.
Zen Meditation (Zazen)
Origin & Meaning
Zazen (坐禅) means “seated Zen”, or “seated meditation”, in Japanese. It has its roots in the Chinese Zen Buddhism (Ch’an) tradition, tracing back to the Indian monk Bodhidharma (6th century CE). In the West, its most popular form comes from Dogen Zenji (1200~1253), the founder of the Soto Zen movement in Japan. Similar modalities are practised in the Rinzai school of Zen, in Japan and Korea.
How to do it
It is generally practised seated on the floor over a mat and cushion, with crossed legs. Traditionally it was done in the so-called lotus or half-lotus position, but this is hardly necessary. Nowadays most practitioners sit like this:
Vipassana Meditation
Origin & Meaning
“Vipassana” is a Pali word tha
t means “insight” or “clear seeing”. It is a traditional Buddhist practice, dating back to 6th century BC. Vipassana-meditation, as taught in the last few decades, comes from the Theravada Buddhist tradition, and was popularized by S. N. Goenka and the Vipassana movement.
Due to the popularity of Vipassanā-meditation, the “mindfulness of breathing” has gained further popularity in the West as “mindfulness”.
How to do it
[There is some conflicting information on how to practice Vipassana. In general, however, most teachers emphasize starting with mindfulness of breath in the first stages, to stabilize the mind and achieve “access concentration.” This is more like focused attention meditation. Then the practice moves on to developing “clear insight” on the bodily sensations and mental phenomena, observing them moment by moment and not clinging to any. Here goes an introduction, aimed at beginners. To know more I’d suggest following up the links provided or learning from a teacher (perhaps in a Vipassana retreat).]
Ideally, one is to sit on a cushion on the floor, cross-legged, with your spine erect; alternatively, a chair may be used, but the back should not be supported.
The first aspect is to develop concentration, through samatha practice. This is typically done through breathing awareness.
Focus all your attention, from moment to moment, on the movement of your breath. Notice the subtle sensations of the movement of the abdomen rising and falling. Alternatively, one can focus on the sensation of the air passing through the nostrils and touching the upper lips skin – though this requires a bit more practice, and is more advanced.
As you focus on the breath, you will notice that other perceptions and sensations continue to appear: sounds, feelings in the body, emotions, etc. Simply notice these phenomena as they emerge in the field of awareness, and then return to the sensation of breathing. The attention is kept in the object of concentration (the breathing), while these other thoughts or sensations are there simply as “background noise”.
The object that is the focus of the practice (for instance, the movement of the abdomen) is called the “primary object”. And a “secondary object” is anything else that arises in your field of perception – either through your five senses (sound, smell, itchiness in the body, etc.) or through the mind (thought, memory, feeling, etc.). If a secondary object hooks your attention and pulls it away, or if it causes the desire or aversion to appearing, you should focus on the secondary object for a moment or two, labelling it with a mental note, like “thinking”, “memory”, “hearing”, “desiring”. This practice is often called “noting”.
A mental note identifies an object in general but not in detail. When you’re aware of a sound, for example, label it “hearing” instead of “motorcycle,” “voices” or “barking dog.” If an unpleasant sensation arises, note “pain” or “feeling” instead of “knee pain” or “my back pain.” Then return your attention to the primary meditation object. When aware of a fragrance, say the mental note “smelling” for a moment or two. You don’t have to identify the scent.
When one has thus gained “access concentration”, the attention is then turned to the object of practice, which is normally thought or bodily sensations. One observes the objects of awareness without attachment, letting thoughts and sensations arise and pass away of their own accord. Mental labelling (explained above) is often used as a way to prevent you from being carried away by thoughts, and keep you in more objectively noticing them.
As a result one develops the clear seeing that the observed phenomena are pervaded by the three “marks of existence”: impermanence (annica), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) and emptiness of self (annata). As a result, equanimity, peace and inner freedom are developed in relation to these inputs.
Loving Kindness Meditation (Metta Meditation)
Origin & Meaning
Metta is a Pali word that means kindness, benevolence, and goodwill. This practise comes from the Buddhist traditions, especially the Theravada and Tibetan lineages. “Compassion meditation” is a contemporary scientific field that demonstrates the efficacy of metta and related meditative practices.
Demonstrated benefits include: boosting one’s ability to empathize with others; development of positive emotions through compassion, including a more loving attitude towards oneself; increased self-acceptance; greater feeling of competence about one’s life; and an increased feeling of purpose in life (read more in our other post).
How to do it
One sits down in a meditation position, with closed eyes, and generates in his mind and heart feelings of kindness and benevolence. Start by developing loving-kindness towards yourself, then progressively towards others and all beings. Usually this progression is advised:
oneself
a good friend
a “neutral” person
a difficult person
all four of the above equally
and then gradually the entire universe
The feeling to be developed is that of wishing happiness and well-being for all. This practice may be aided by reciting specific words or sentences that evoke the “boundless warm-hearted feeling”, visualizing the suffering of others and sending love; or by imagining the state of another being, and wishing him happiness and peace.
Mantra Meditation (OM Meditation)
Origin & Meaning
A mantra is a syllable or word, usually without any particular meaning, that is repeated for the purpose of focusing your mind. It is not an affirmation used to convince yourself of something.
Some meditation teachers insist that both the choice of word, and its correct pronunciation, is very important, due to the “vibration” associated with the sound and meaning, and that for this reason, an initiation into it is essential. Others say that the mantra itself is only a tool to focus the mind, and the chosen word is completely irrelevant.
Mantras are used in Hindu traditions, Buddhist traditions (especially Tibetan and “Pure Land” Buddhism), as well as in Jainism, Sikhism and Daoism (Taoism). Some people call mantra meditation “om meditation”, but that is just one of the mantras that can be used. A more devotion oriented practice of mantras is called japa, and consists of repeating sacred sounds (name of God) with love.
How to do it
Like with most types of meditations, it is usually practised sitting with spine erect, and eyes closed. The practitioner then repeats the mantra in his mind, silently, over and over again during the whole session.
Sometimes this practice is coupled with being aware of the breathing or coordinating with it. In other exercises, the mantra is actually whispered very lightly and softly, as an aid to concentration.
As you repeat the mantra, it creates a mental vibration that allows the mind to experience deeper levels of awareness. As you meditate, the mantra becomes increasingly abstract and indistinct, until you’re finally led into the field of pure consciousness from which the vibration arose. Repetition of the mantra helps you disconnect from the thoughts filling your mind so that perhaps you may slip into the gap between thoughts. The mantra is a tool to support your meditation practice. Mantras can be viewed as ancient power words with subtle intentions that help us connect to spirit, the source of everything in the universe. (Deepak Chopra)
OM is a well-known example of a mantra. But there are thousands of others. Here are some of the most well-known mantras from the Hindu & Buddhist traditions:
om
so-ham
om namah shivaya
om mani padme hum
rama
yam
ham
You may practice for a certain period of time, or for a set number of “repetitions” – traditionally 108 or 1008. In the latter case, beads are typically used for keeping count.
As the practice deepens, you may find that the mantra continues “by itself” like the humming of the mind. Or the mantra may even disappear, and you are left in a state of deep inner peace.
There are many methods of mantra meditation. I explain them in detail, together with why mantras are powerful, in my article on mantra meditation.
Yogic Meditations
Origin & Meaning
There is no one type of meditation which is “Yogic Meditation”, so here it is meant the several meditation types taught in the yoga tradition. Yoga means “union”. The tradition goes as far as 1700 B.C, and has as its highest goal spiritual purification and Self-Knowledge. Classical Yoga divides the practice into rules of conduct (yamas and niyamas), physical postures (asanas), breathing exercises (pranayama), and contemplative practices of meditation (pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi).
The Yoga tradition is the oldest meditation tradition on earth, and also the one with the widest variety of practices.
How to do it
Here are some types of meditation practised in Yoga. The most common and universal Yoga meditation one is the “third eye meditation”. Other popular ones involve concentrating on a chakra, repeating a mantra, visualization of light, or gazing meditations.
Third Eye Meditation — focusing the attention on the “spot between the eyebrows” (called by some “the third eye” or “ajna chakra”). The attention is constantly redirected to this point, as a means to silence the mind. By time the “silent gaps” between thoughts get wider and deeper. Sometimes this is accompanied by physically “looking”, with eyes closed, towards that spot.
Chakra Meditation — the practitioner focuses on one of the seven chakras of the body (“centers of energy”), typically doing some visualizations and chanting a specific mantra for each chakra (lam, vam, ram, yam, ham, om). Most commonly it is done on the heart chackra, third eye, and crown chackra.
Gazing Meditation (Trataka) — fixing the gaze on an external object, typically a candle, image or a symbol (yantras). It is done with eyes open, and then with eyes closed, to train both the concentration and visualization powers of the mind. After closing the eyes, you should still keep the image of the object in your “mind’s eye”.
Kundalini Meditation — this is a very complex system of practice. The goal is the awakening of the “kundalini energy” which lies dormant on the base of the spine, the development of several psychic centers in the body, and, finally, enlightenment. There are several dangers associated with this practice, and it should not be attempted without the guidance of a qualified yogi.
Kriya Yoga — is a set of energization, breathing, and meditation exercises taught by Paramahamsa Yogananda. This is more suited for those who have a devotional temperament, and are seeking the spiritual aspects of meditation.
Sound Meditation (Nada Yoga) — focusing on sound. Starts with meditation on “external sounds”, such as calming ambient music (like Native American flute music), whereby the student focuses all his attention on just hearing, as a help to quieten and collect the mind. By time the practice evolves to hearing the “internal sounds” of the body and mind. The ultimate goal is to hear the “Ultimate Sound” (para nada), which is a sound without vibration, and that manifests as “OM”.
Tantra — unlike the popular view in the West, most Tantra practices have nothing to do with ritualized sex (this was practiced by a minority of lineages. Tantra is a very rich tradition, with dozens of different contemplative practices. The text Vijnanabhairava Tantra, for instance, lists 108 “meditations”, most of them more advanced (already requiring a certain degree of stillness and mind control). Here are some examples from that text:
Merge the mind and the senses in the interior space in the spiritual heart.
When one object is perceived, all other objects become empty. Concentrate on that emptiness.
Concentrate on the space which occurs between two thoughts.
Fix attention on the inside of the skull. Close eyes.
Meditate on the occasion of any great delight.
Meditate on the feeling of pain.
Dwell on the reality which exists between pain and pleasure.
Meditate on the void in one’s body extending in all directions simultaneously.
Concentrate on a bottomless well or as standing in a very high place.
Listen to the Anahata [heart chakra] sound.
Listen to the sound of a musical instrument as it dies away.
Contemplate on the universe or one’s own body as being filled with bliss.
Concentrate intensely on the idea that the universe is completely void.
Contemplate that the same consciousness exists in all bodies.
Pranayama — breathing regulation. It is not exactly meditation, but an excellent practice to calm the mind and prepare it for meditation. There are several different types of Pranayama, but the simplest and most commonly taught one is the 4-4-4-4. This means breathing in counting up to 4, holding for 4 seconds, breathing out for 4 seconds, and holding empty for 4 seconds. Breathe through your nose, and let the abdomen (and not the chest) be the one that moves. Go through a few cycles like this. This regulation of breathing balances the moods and pacifies the body, and can be done anywhere.
Yoga is a very rich tradition, with different lineages, so there are many other techniques. But the ones above are the most well-known; the others are more specific or complex.
I have to make quick interviews with possible users for the Meditation Guide App. The main point of this interviews is to understand what the different kind of users waits from an app like this one.
For this post, I will describe the different needs that I have identified from the users. These needs will be divided into three different post parts to make them easier to understand.
Expectancies
When I ask my possible user about what they expect from an app like this, I got multiple answers with different necessities and recommendations. But, there were three things that they find extremely important.
Levels
For the users seems extremely important to have different levels of meditation guide. It should start with a beginner lever, where someone guides you through the whole process. A medium-level that is a mix between music and guides. An expert level that will be only music or mantra and a timer for finishing the exercise.
Timer
Another element to seem important is a timer that helps the user measure their time progress through the use. Also to programme the time and the duration of the meditation progress so it is easy to get through the process and out.
Music
The final part of the expectancies is the music, most of the users said that they will expect that the timer alarm is through Buddhism, calm music that helps the people awake softer. Also, they want to have soft music in the meditation process to keep them calm.
Calming Anxiety
The meditation applications are useful to calm down an anxious mind by offering guided & unstructured video of around 20 minutes (the time differs from app-to-app).
Stress Management
These meditation apps help in determining stress levels and reduce them through meditation tools that consist of images & music.
Deep Sleep
Meditation mobile apps create a nice aura through relaxing music of nature and melody. This helps users in experiencing calm that promotes sleep.
Focus & Concentration
These applications allow their users to block distractions from other apps, texts, calls, and this allows them to focus and concentrate better during work.
Relationship
Few of the apps offering advanced features allow their users in connecting and maintaining healthy and sound relationships that increase their energy.
Habit & Goal Tracker
The apps allow its users to break habits through its tool that is useful in tracking habits & realizing their goals. It may consist of notifications, reminders (can be customized), and a lot more.
Attain Happiness
The apps offer several features that help their users to experience true happiness. It may consist of guided meditation sessions, nature sounds, and several step-by-step processes to stay in a peaceful and happy space.
Self-Esteem
Most of these meditation apps offer this functionality that is helpful in boosting the self-esteem of the users by bringing their attention to positive aspects of life.
In this blog entry I will have a look on how to implement Glassmorphism in figma, but also briefly in code.
First you start off by choosing a colorful background or a simple background with colorful elements, which will be seen partly due to the transparency of the glassmorphic card element in front. It works very good with gradients, why I have chosen them for my example. Ones the background is set, create a card and choose a linear gradient for the fill, which consists of two white colors of different opacities. It is important to change the opacity of the fill, but not the opacity of the whole object. With a background blur, the glass optic becomes visible and you get a first preview of the look.
Add an outline to indicate the borders of the object. It later helps to establish the hierarchy. For a better illusion of depth, additional linear gradients that fit to the background can also be applied to the outline. A subtle shadow rounds everything off and helps to distinguish all the layers. Also the content is placed in an Overlay layer mode, which attaches it more into the card. By using noise, the frosting effect is created and gives the card the perfect glass optic.
But what about the visual hierarchy with this transparent elements? As in Neumorphism, also Glassmorphism uses the skeuomorphic approach of the real world counterpart, which in this case is of course glass, as a guideline for shadows and blur effects. When there are multiple layers of glassmorphic cards, each of them should receive a subtle shadow as described above.
The differentiation of the blur helps to show which element is at the top, middle and back. As in the real world, the farer away a frosted glass is from the background, the more blur the background seems to be through the glass. For applying this, just start with the back element and give it a blur value of 15, the middle one has to be a little more blurred, around 25 and the top one can be around 40. To make the hierarchy totally clear, it is also necessary to decrease the opacity from the top card to the lowest. In the image below, the top card has an opacity value of 36, while the bottom one has only 16. To complete everything, add the borders applying the rules from above or just use a white outline. Either way the outline has to have a lower opacity from the top card to the lowest card, for which one can orientate on the applied blur as well.
To make glassmorphic icons, the rules showed in the figma file above are usually implemented in a single element of the icon, which is placed in front of colorful background elements. The actual color of the icon is sometimes also displayed in the transparent glass surface. In the images below, you can see various examples of how Glassmorphism is implemented on icons. The simple step by step guide from above can be used to create the glassmorphic icons from scratch.
While Neumorphism is mostly used for interactive elements like buttons, cards, toggles and sliders, Glassmorphism is more used in a passive way. It is supposed to give the interface a smooth and modern look by reducing the style to only small and non interactive background elements like cards, icons, overlays etc.
As with Neumorphism, there is a generator for glassmorphic card elements available online which gives a preview and generates code to copy for your css code.
I found lots of tutorials how to implement Glassmorphism in code, one of the examples how to do it you can see below. Basically there are only a few lines of code in html and css (focus is on css) which are very similar to the principle of creating this style in figma.
