Haptic pillow sleeve: enhancing sleep quality by providing vital sound awareness through vibrotactile feedback

Ehelagasthenna, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2963-4018, Holmquist, LE ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0229-2345, Oliveira, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8143-3534, Shahidi, AM, Lugoda, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5959-9500 and Hughes-Riley, T ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8020-430X, 2026. Haptic pillow sleeve: enhancing sleep quality by providing vital sound awareness through vibrotactile feedback. In: 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Barcelona , Spain, 13-17 April 2026.

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Abstract

Sleeping environments—such as shared bedrooms, hospitals, or urban settings—often present challenges due to disruptive noises and conflicting alarm schedules. These disturbances can fragment sleep or cause premature awakening. Conventional solutions like earplugs or white noise machines improve sleep quality but compromise awareness of critical sounds (e.g., fire alarms, baby crying), posing safety risks. To address this, we developed an interactive pillow sleeve that delivers vibrotactile feedback for context-based awareness during sleep. Four distinct haptic patterns were designed to represent specific events: fire alarm, smoke alarm, doorbell, and dog barking. A user study (n = 10) evaluated the recognizability of these patterns under conditions eliminating auditory and visual cues. Results indicate that participants could reliably identify associated events, demonstrating the feasibility of haptic-enabled interfaces for enhancing night time safety and situational awareness, particularly for shared sleepers and individuals with sensory impairments.

Item Type:	Conference contribution
Description:	Extended abstract
Creators:	Ehelagasthenna, M., Holmquist, L.E., Oliveira, C., Shahidi, A.M., Lugoda, P. and Hughes-Riley, T.
Contributors:	Name Role NTU ID ORCID Oliver, N. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Shamma, D.A. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Candello, H. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Cesar, P. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Lopes, P. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Artizzu, V. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Draxler, F. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED López, G. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Reinschluessel, A.V. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Tong, X. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Toups Dugas, P.O. Editor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
Publisher:	Association for Computing Machinery
Place of Publication:	New York
Date:	13 April 2026
ISBN:	9798400722813
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1145/3772363.3798362 DOI 2619101 Other
Rights:	©2026 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham School of Art & Design
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	22 Apr 2026 10:49
Last Modified:	22 Apr 2026 10:49
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/55587

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