{"id":259,"date":"2025-05-29T10:37:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T14:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/?p=259"},"modified":"2025-09-19T10:44:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:44:41","slug":"toklima-a-robotic-voting-interface-to-democratize-thermal-comfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/2025\/toklima-a-robotic-voting-interface-to-democratize-thermal-comfort\/","title":{"rendered":"Toklima: A Robotic Voting Interface to Democratize Thermal Comfort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Toklima: A Robotic Voting Interface to Democratize Thermal Comfort\n <\/h1>\n \n \n \n\n

Sage Tse<\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Project Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toklima<\/em> explores how social robotics and tangible interaction<\/strong> can be used to visualize and mediate thermal comfort in shared workspaces. Developed in partnership with FourDRobotics, the project responds to the often-overlooked challenge of regulating temperature in offices, a task traditionally managed without user input, leading to discomfort and inefficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The design centers on a robotic voting interface<\/strong> that empowers employees to cast temperature preferences using a physical dial. Votes are averaged and discreetly recorded, ensuring both fairness and anonymity<\/strong>. Rather than attempting to solve thermal comfort universally, Toklima opens a dialogue between stakeholders<\/strong>, highlighting differing needs and helping building systems adapt more intelligently over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through iterative sprints, field surveys (n=82), user interviews, and multiple rounds of prototyping and testing, the project refined an elegant, approachable aesthetic that increases participation and fosters what the designer terms the \u201cwatercooler effect\u201d<\/strong>, encouraging spontaneous social interaction around the robot. Data is stored and structured to support future HVAC optimization and energy savings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toklima offers value on three levels: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Employees<\/strong> gain agency over their workspace. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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    • Building managers<\/strong> benefit from energy-efficient, data-informed HVAC adjustments. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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      • Designers and technologists<\/strong> gain a case study in how robot form and interaction design affect trust and engagement in everyday settings. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Keywords<\/strong>: Thermal Comfort, Social Robotics, Human-Centered Design, Tangible Voting, Workplace Wellbeing, Environmental Data, Robot Aesthetics <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Project Summary Toklima explores how social robotics and tangible interaction can be used to visualize and mediate thermal comfort in shared workspaces. Developed in partnership with FourDRobotics, the project responds to the often-overlooked challenge of regulating temperature in offices, a task traditionally managed without user input, leading to discomfort and inefficiency.  The design centers on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-capstone"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}