A fan, a space heater, and a cotton swab

Recently I had my parents over to my place to try out the rift. Actually they were there just to visit but they noticed it sitting on my desk and asked about it. Anyway they loved it. I played around with a few things while they were trying just for shits and giggles, but it seriously got me thinking of creating some kind of device to simulate certain elements such as heat and cold.

As my dad was walking around in the Tuscany demo, I told him to walk towards the fireplace. As he did, I moved my space heater close to him. He was amazed by how "realistic" the game felt and that he actually thought the game was creating the illusion of heat. My mom and I had a great laugh about that and then I finally let him in on what I did.

My mother was up next on the riftcoaster demo. Right when the coaster reached the top and started to drop I turned my fan on to full speed and put it right in front of her. She freaked out and almost fell out of chair. She said that the feeling of the wind combined with the speed of the coaster was too much to handle.

The final goof I played was on my friend's daughter while she was playing Don't Let Go. When it got to the part where the spider is crawling on you, I gently brushed her arm with a cotton swab in the same spot where the virtual spider was crawling. She let out the loudest scream I've ever heard. Suffice to say, it was a success.


Now my idea is for some kind of device that can replicate those type of feelings without needing someone to manually control it. I'm thinking of trying to build some kind of hybrid device for the hot and cold sensations and if possible some kind of robot arm type thing that can do the touching. I remember seeing something on TV when I was a kid about theaters that used to have devices that did something similar, so it's not like my idea is original. How feasible could something like this be? How difficult would it be to make a game that registers when you are near a hot or cold object and triggers some kind of device? I'm thinking it would be similar to vibration features that are in consoles today. Or would an entire suit be a better way to go?