ThermoBlinds: Non-Contact, Highly Responsive Thermal Feedback for Thermal Interaction

ThermoBlinds

We present ThermoBlinds, a non-contact, highly responsive thermal feedback device for thermal interactions. It provides responsive feedback by rapidly adjusting infrared irradiance with a shutter mechanism. The feedback can be applied according to visual media contents to reproduce thermal experiences. By providing thermal feedback in accordance with the user’s gaze, it is possible to create a visual media experience with a high resolution thermal sensation. Additionally, it supports remote communication by providing thermal feedback based on the other person’s gaze.

  • Sosuke Ichihashi, Arata Horie, Masaharu Hirose, Zendai Kashino, Shigeo Yoshida, Sohei Wakisaka, and Masahiko Inami. 2022. ThermoBlinds: Non-Contact, Highly Responsive Thermal Feedback for Thermal Interaction. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2022 Emerging Technologies (SIGGRAPH ’22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 10, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532721.3535569
  • Sosuke Ichihashi, Arata Horie, Masaharu Hirose, Zendai Kashino, Shigeo Yoshida, and Masahiko Inami. 2021. High-Speed Non-Contact Thermal Display Using Infrared Rays and Shutter Mechanism. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (UbiComp ’21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 565–569. https://doi.org/10.1145/3460418.3480160. MIMSVAI Best Paper Award.

温度を用いたインタラクションのための非接触かつ高応答な温度提示手法「ThermoBlinds」を開発しました。赤外線源とユーザとの間にあるブラインドのような遮蔽機構が、赤外線放射照度を高速に制御することで、非接触性と応答性を両立しています。
この手法は、画像・映像のような視覚メディアの内容に応じた温度提示をリアルタイムに行うだけでなく、視線に応じた温度提示により「見た対象の温度を感じられる」ように視覚を拡張することで、高解像度での温度体験をも実現します。