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The design of thermal experiences, often only associated with hot and cold sensations, encompasses a much wider range of qualities that can evoke emotional and sensory effects on users extending beyond this basic binary nature. Through a phenomenological study of a traditional Finnish sauna, we delve into how individuals perceive and express full-body heat sensations using both verbal and non-verbal methods and infer dimensions and parameters of heat that can inform future thermal experience design. Findings from participants’ expressions lead to formulating experiential dimensions such as the dynamic nature of heat, the aesthetics of discomfort, considerations of texture and heaviness, interoception, and personal memories that expand our understanding what heat as a design material consists of and the various possibilities it may hold. Furthermore, we propose three thermal parameters of motion, timbre, and distribution which can contribute to designing more intricate heat experiences and pave the way for further research in temperature interfaces.

We present the design, development and evaluation of a bi-directional inductive power transfer circuit for prototyping purposes in the watt-range. Our device does not require any configuration and is intended for the development of wearable and tangible systems. Our approach allows a bi-directional power flow without any change in the circuit, such that the same circuit can be used for charging and discharging a battery. The contribution of this work is an enabling technology for researchers and practitioners in the fields of Wearable Electronics, Ubiquitous Computing and Human-Computer Interaction interested in exploring new interactions powered by watt-range inductive links. It enables smaller battery sizes, and therefore lighter devices, as the power can be distributed in a way that has not been feasible before. We discuss the motivations, technical details and the workshop evaluating our inductive approach.