The Thermal Feedback Influencer: Wearable Thermal Display for Enhancing the Experience of Music Listening

Abstract

This paper describes a new wearable thermal display, the Thermal Feedback Influencer, that can provide chilling stimuli to the skin in order to enhance emotional experiences of music listening. We developed a prototype device that can be attached to behind the ear. The device is designed to be small and lightweight enough to be worn comfortably. In this work, we describe basic concepts of this research, preliminary test results, details and evaluation of the developed prototype. We also summarize methods to provide thermal feedback with music and discuss the possible applications and future research plans.