Thermometers are superb at measuring temperature but lousy at describing it. A bulb of mercury tells me it’s 55 degrees–but what’s 55 degrees? When was the last time I walked into a room and said, “This place feels exactly 55 degrees.”

The device was created by Robb Godshaw of Syyn Labs.

Syncing with Wi-Fi to online weather reports, you can touch this aluminum cube to actually feel the outside temperature rather than simply reading about it through numbers or whimsical sunshine icons. “I sought to develop a device that conveyed the forecast in a manner which left nothing to the imagination,” Godshaw tells us. “It provides a thorough and instantaneous understanding of what awaits the user outside.”

Technically, the 4-inch milled aluminum cube is stuffed with quite a bit of hardware, including an Arduino that controls a Peltier element and a heat sink, which work in tandem to pump heat appropriately. After the first weather sync, it’s just a few minutes before the device comes to temperature.

The temperature ranges from 0°F (-18°C) to 100°F (38°C) which is clearly a decent measure of the hot and cold.

[Via: Fastcodesign and robb.cc]