Enhancing Multisensory Experiences Through Temperature-Controlled Wind Effects

Abstract In this paper, we introduce Twirl, a haptic system that allows the creation and delivery of hot and cold airflow synchronised with audiovisual content. Twirl combines vaporization of cooled water by Peltier elements for cold wind and hair dryers for warm wind steered by wind fans. To assess our system, we conducted several studies. First, we analyzed the time our devices take to deliver these effects considering different starting temperatures in the environment. Then, we annotated three videos with hot wind, cold wind, and both effects respectively to observe the feasibility of having those effects integrated with audiovisual content. Next, we assessed the temperature variation of the devices as a function of distance. Finally, we distributed questionnaires such as Virtual Reality Hardware Acceptance Model and Lombard's Temple Presence Inventory questionnaires to assess different user experience facets and attitudes towards the proposed device. Preliminary results highlighted positive user attitudes and experiences towards Twirl.