Peltier elements power thermal gaming, warm backsides

Technology’s all about touch and movement nowadays, isn’t it? A team from Tokyo Metropolitan University doesn’t think so: it’s exploring the possibilities of thermal gaming. Using Peltier elements (which are hot one side and cold the other), it’s built three experimental uses for the gear. Thermodraw sits an element beneath a screen that changes temperature based on the colors painted — an icy tundra will find the image cold to touch, Hawaii holiday snaps the opposite. Thermogame places the elements inside the controller, helping you navigate fire and ice hazards and Thermochair, which changes temperature if you get a message — although we think it would make a handy backside warmer (and a great way to prank people into thinking they’d just lost bladder control). You can watch the trifecta in action after the break, explained in the warm, soporific tones of Diginfo’s narrator.