Project Reference number
School/Institute/Research Group
Research Discipline areas
Research Theme
Project Title
Research Project Area
2013EBE013
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Interactive and Trustworthy Technologies Group
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Designing Real-World Interactive Thermal Interfaces
Many modern systems are moving towards user interfaces based on physical interactions e.g. multitouch, gestures etc. As part of this haptic feedback has received a lot of attention, although this has mostly been based on the vibrotactile actuators in phones, games controllers etc. There has been very little work in HCI on other aspects of the touch sense, in particular thermal.
Thermal stimulation is a rich, emotive and salient feedback channel that is well suited to HCI, but is yet to be fully explored. Numerous potential uses for thermal feedback include augmenting information, affective feedback and ambient notification. In particular thermal provides an extra degree of freedom for haptic interfaces which allows more information to be presented in an eyes-free manner, this is important for information presentation in difficult environments e.g. information from multiple sensors in healthcare/engineering/driving environments etc. Initial research on thermal interfaces by the DOS has already shown the benefits of thermal interfaces and provides a strong theoretical foundation. This work has been published in leading HCI venues and will be part of GCUs REF submission. However, more detailed research is needed to fully exploit the opportunities afforded by using thermal interfaces.
The aim of this project is to create real, interactive and engaging user
experiences through thermal interfaces. More specifically the aims are to:
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Investigate the use of thermal interfaces for ambient always on display, both on person and in environment
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Develop proxemic thermal interactions, where time and/or distance are mapped to a temperature space
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Investigate the affective aspects of thermal interaction for use in media, gaming etc.
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Create thermal icons for alerts and reminders
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Combine thermal feedback with other forms of haptic interaction for
‘rich touch’ interfaces

Supervisory Team
Staff Contact
The outcomes should be design guidelines and demonstrator applications to help designers use the results in their own work.
Dr Martin Halvey (Director of Studies)
Professor Lynne Baillie (2 nd Supervisor)
Professor Stephen Brewster (3 rd Supervisor, University of Glasgow)
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Dr Martin Halvey; Martin.Halvey@gcu.ac.uk