  In a typical mid-air haptics system, focused airborne ultrasound provides
vibrotactile sensations to localized areas on a bare skin. Herein, a method for
displaying thermal sensations to hands where mesh fabric gloves are worn is
proposed. The gloves employed in this study are commercially available mesh
fabric gloves with sound absorption characteristics, such as cotton work gloves
without any additional devices such as Peltier elements. The method proposed in
this study can also provide vibrotactile sensations by changing the ultrasonic
irradiation pattern. In this paper, we report basic experimental investigations
on the proposed method. By performing thermal measurements, we evaluate the
local heat generation on the surfaces of both the glove and the skin by focused
airborne ultrasound irradiation. In addition, we performed perceptual
experiments, thereby confirming that the proposed method produced both thermal
and vibrotactile sensations. Furthermore, these sensations were selectively
provided to a certain extent by changing the ultrasonic irradiation pattern.
These results validate the effectiveness of our method and its feasibility in
mid-air haptics applications.
