Jasprit Singh, professorof electrical engineeringand computerscience at Universityof Michigan, has suggestedthat smartphonescan enhancemindfulness, help usersstay attentive andachieve particulargoals while at work orhome.
NEW YORK – Smartphones, oftenbilled as distractors, can actually help enhanceattention and mindfulness, claimsan Indo-American researcher.Jasprit Singh, professor of electricalengineering and computer science at Universityof Michigan, has suggested thatsmartphones can enhance mindfulness,help users stay attentive and achieve particulargoals while at work or home.“In our culture today, we often don’thave scarcity of food or gadgets or knowledge.The scarcity has shifted to mindfulness,”said Singh in a release issued byUniversity of Michigan.“Humans tend to forget, especiallyunder stress. But smartphones don’t operatethat way,” he added.During one of his classes, Singh challengedhis students to design mobile appsto help users set and meet ‘wellness’ milestones.The apps his team developed focusedon delivering messages to users at a settime or place.An app named ‘Balance’, developedfor senior citizens, offers easy and routineaccess to short exercise videos that couldimprove coordination and prevent falls.‘WeeAddition’ app guides womenthrough pregnancy while ‘Joggle’ is a collaborativeart, poetry and music app thatcould encourage creativity.Another app named ‘College Granny’is aimed to help students balance studying,socialising and develop healthy habits.The users can set the app to remind themat appropriate times to, say, go to sleep,take break from reading, or quit after aparticular number of drinks at a bar, saidthe release.“The goal of this course was to bringharmony between what we know andwhat we do,” Singh added.
