Scented Dice: New interaction qualities for ideating connected devices

TL;DR

This paper introduces the Loaded Dice, a multisensory device with sensing and actuation capabilities, including thermal sensations, and explores adding smell as a new modality to enhance ideation in co-design workshops.

Contribution

It presents the Loaded Dice as a novel multisensory tool and discusses integrating smell to enrich multisensory experiences in co-design ideation.

Findings

Loaded Dice incorporates thermal sensations and sensing capabilities.

Adding smell can further enhance multisensory ideation.

The tool is embedded in workshops using an extended interaction vocabulary.

Abstract

Much research has been done around creating multisensory ideation and prototyping tools. We relate our own multisensory tool, the Loaded Dice, to this domain. We briefly explain what sensing and actuating possibilities the Loaded Dice already have (including thermal sensations), and how they are methodically embedded in workshops using an extended interaction vocabulary to characterize and ideate multisensory experiences. We briefly ponder simple technical ways to add smell as an output modality, and discuss why and how smell capabilities will enrich ideation workshops in co-design.