TACTILE INTERACTION MONITORING

A thermal monitoring system (10) is for monitoring a touch interaction between two persons based on heat tracking. A thermal stimulus generator (12) is used to generate coded or patterned thermal stimuli (14). The thermal stimulus generator is arranged, to generate the thermal stimuli so that when the user touches a subject with one of a defined set of touching areas of the hand, one of the thermal stimuli interposes the touch interaction and applies the thermal stimulus to the skin of the user. This leaves an impression of the thermal pattern or code (16) embodied by the thermal stimulus on the skin of the subject. Different touching locations of the hand are uniquely associated with thermal stimuli with different thermal patterns or codes, allowing for retrospective tracking of touch events based on thermal monitoring of the touch interaction.