Study on cold/warm sensation of materials used in desktop of furniture
The aim of this study was to investigate the cold/warm sensations of materials used in desktop when forearms touching desktop. Both experimental tests and subjective evaluations were conducted in this study. A device was developed used to simulate forearm in order to replace subjects. Five men and five women were selected and introduced to six types of materials and two types of environmental temperatures in the tests. The results showed that the effects of environmental temperature on contact temperature of all tested materials were statistically significant, and the differences among wood and wood based materials, plastic materials, and artificial stone were also statistically significant. The device developed in this study was qualified to measure the contacting temperature between forearm and desktop sustainably and steadily, which can reduce the error introduced by subjects. Although qualitative relation was found between contact temperature and subjective evaluations, no quantitative correlation was proved.