The video game system uses heart rate monitoring to change the game. If the player is getting anxious, the game will become difficult to play. It requires the player to practise calming exercises and lower their heart rate before they can continue playing.
Mightier, developed by Neuromation Labs, is a biofeedback video game system designed to help kids understand their emotions while teaching them calming skills. Gamifying therapies and behavioural coaching turns practising skills from a task into a fun experience. It helps to keep the players motivated.
The Mightier system comes with a stress ball, heart rate monitor, wrist bands, and a game system. Continuous heart rate monitoring is used to impact gameplay to help the player visualise their emotional state. The program is broken down into four phases over twelve weeks, so kids have lots of time to process information and grasp the calming exercises.
The player can choose from many popular games to make it easy to stay engaged. As the player’s heart rate increases, the difficulty of the game increases. By turning emotions into an interactive and visual element, they learn to feel more connected to their feelings and how their behaviours influence them. At some points in the game, if the heart rate is too high, the user must pause or practise breathing exercises to slow their heart rate.
Over time, the player becomes empowered by understanding what causes their anxiety to rise and how to lower it again. This builds confidence and skill in a fun, safe environment. The skills developed are transferable to real-life situations. After twelve weeks of play, families have found parental stress to go down by 19%, a 40% reduction in oppositional behaviour, and a decrease in child outbursts by 62%. ChillPanda is smartphone game with a similar concept, using a panda avatar and heart rate monitoring to help young adults with anxiety.