HCI is increasingly exploring how temperature can be used as an interaction modality. One challenge is that temperature changes are perceived over the course of seconds. This can be attributed to both the slow response time of skin thermoreceptors and the latency of the technology used to heat and cool the skin. For this reason, thermal cues are typically used to communicate single states, such as an emotion, and then there is a pause of tens of seconds to allow the skin to re-adapt to a neutral temperature before sending another signal. In contrast, this paper presents the first experimental demonstration that continuous temperature changes can guide behaviour: significantly improving performance in a 2D maze navigation task, without having to return to a neutral state before a new signal is sent. We discuss how continuous thermal feedback may be used for real world navigational tasks.

Previous research has investigated whether temperature can augment a range of media including music, images and video. We describe the first experiment to investigate whether temperature can augment emotion conveyed by text messages. A challenge in prior work has been ensuring users can discern different thermal signals. We present an improved technique for thermal feedback that uses an array of three thermal stimulators. We demonstrate that the Thermal Array Display (TAD) increases users' ability to identify temperatures within a narrower range, compared to using a single thermal stimulator. While text messages dominate valence in the absence of context for temperature, the TAD consistently conveys arousal, and can enhance arousal of text messages, especially those that are emotionally neutral. We discuss potential applications of augmenting text with temperature.

In this paper we describe Ring*U which is a ring-shaped, wearable system for sharing intimate, interpersonal interactions remotely through subtle colored lighting and tactile expressions. We present an overview of the Ring*U system. We also describe our next objectives for future work.