Glossary

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Affective Touch(also: Social Touch, Emotional Touch)

The emotional and social dimension of touch, distinct from discriminative touch that identifies object properties. Affective touch is mediated primarily by C-tactile (CT) afferents in hairy skin and plays a fundamental role in social bonding, emotional communication, and…

Anticipatory Grasp(also: Pregrasp Planning, Pre-grasp, Pre-shaping)

Anticipatory grasp refers to the pre-shaping of the hand before contact with an object, based on expectations about the object's size, shape, and orientation. In sighted people this planning is driven primarily by visual input during the reach phase and produces smooth,…

Audio-to-Haptics Translation(also: Audio-haptic translation, Audio-to-vibration conversion)

A class of techniques that convert audio signals — either recordings of real-world interactions or AI-generated sounds — into vibrotactile patterns that can be rendered through actuators embedded in phones, tablets, wearables, or specialized haptic displays. Because the…

C-tactile Afferents(also: CT afferents, C-tactile fibres, CT fibres)

Unmyelinated, slow-conducting nerve fibres found in hairy skin that respond selectively to gentle, slow stroking touch at velocities of approximately 1-10 cm/s. C-tactile afferents are strongly associated with affective and social touch, activating neural pathways linked to…

Deep Pressure Therapy(also: DPT, Deep Pressure Stimulation, Deep Touch Pressure)

A therapeutic approach that uses firm, distributed tactile pressure — such as from weighted blankets, compression garments, or inflatable vests — to reduce anxiety, stress, and physiological arousal. Deep pressure stimulation activates the parasympathetic nervous system,…

Finger Assistive Device(also: FAD)

A category of wearable assistive devices worn on a finger or fingertip that extend sensing or actuation to the primary locus of tactile perception. The term was introduced by Shilkrot et al. to classify finger-worn input technologies, particularly those developed for blind and…

Fingertip Deflection

A haptic guidance technique in which a wearable device gently pulls or tilts the fingertip in a chosen direction (abduction, adduction, flexion, or extension) to bias arm motion toward a target during reach. Unlike vibrotactile alerts that must be symbolically decoded, fingertip…

Force-Sensing Resistor(also: FSR, Force Sensor)

A sensor that decreases in electrical resistance when physical pressure is applied to its surface. Force-sensing resistors are commonly used in assistive technology and accessibility applications to create pressure-sensitive input devices, haptic feedback systems, and adaptive…

Haptic Design(also: Vibrotactile Design, Haptic Authoring)

The practice of authoring haptic feedback - typically vibrations, forces, or temperature cues - so that it conveys intended meaning, emotion, or synchronicity with other media. Haptic design involves choosing signal parameters such as amplitude, frequency, timing, and spatial…

Haptic Field of View(also: Tactile Field of View, Haptic Aperture)

The limited area that can be perceived through touch at any given moment, analogous to the visual field of view but much more restricted. While vision allows perception of an entire scene simultaneously, touch typically provides information only from the area directly under the…

Haptic Graph(also: Haptic Chart, Force-feedback Graph)

A haptic graph is a non-visual rendering of a chart or graph — a bar chart, line graph, scatter plot, or mathematical function — that a blind or low-vision user explores by touch, typically through a force-feedback haptic device such as the PHANToM or a vibrotactile tablet.…

Haptic Icon(also: Hapticon)

A short, structured vibrotactile or force pattern designed to carry meaning in the same way a graphical icon or audio earcon does, allowing users to recognize a category of information — an alert, material, identity, or state — through touch alone. The concept generalizes…

Haptic Rendering(also: Haptic display rendering)

The process of computing and outputting touch-based signals — forces, vibrations, textures, or friction — so that a user can perceive virtual or remote objects through the sense of touch. Haptic rendering covers kinesthetic rendering (force feedback via joysticks, exoskeletons,…

Kinesthetic(also: Kinaesthetic)

Kinesthetic refers to the sense of body movement, limb position and muscular effort, arising from receptors in muscles, tendons and joints and closely related to proprioception. In accessibility and interaction-design contexts, kinesthetic cues - such as the pull a partner…

Kinesthetic Feedback(also: Kinesthetic Haptics, Force Feedback)

A form of haptic feedback that engages the body’s sense of limb position, movement, and applied force — the kinesthetic sense mediated by receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints — rather than cutaneous sensation alone. Kinesthetic displays include force-feedback joysticks,…

Mechanoreceptor(also: Tactile Receptor, Touch Receptor)

A sensory receptor in the skin that responds to mechanical pressure or distortion, enabling the sense of touch. Different types of mechanoreceptors detect various tactile qualities: Meissner corpuscles sense light touch and low-frequency vibration (10-65 Hz), Pacinian corpuscles…

Mediated Social Touch(also: Remote Touch, Tele-touch, Haptic Telepresence)

The use of haptic technology to simulate or communicate social touch gestures — such as stroking, squeezing, patting, or hugging — between people who are physically separated. Mediated social touch systems encode touch from one person and reproduce it on a remote partner's body…

Passive Haptic Feedback(also: Passive tactile feedback)

Tactile information provided to a user by the inherent physical properties of a device or interface, without any active actuation. Examples include the raised bezel around a touch screen, the tactile bump on the F and J keys of a keyboard, a notched dial, or the edge of a…

Phase-Based Motion Processing(also: Phase-Based Video Motion Processing, Phase-Based Motion Magnification)

A family of computer vision techniques that decompose video frames into complex steerable pyramids and analyse changes in the temporal phase of each scale and orientation to recover motion, including sub-pixel movements invisible to the naked eye. Because it operates in the…

Skin Stretch(also: Tangential Skin Stretch)

A haptic feedback technique that conveys directional or magnitude information by laterally stretching the skin at the fingertip, palm, or other contact point rather than by vibration or kinesthetic force on a joint. Skin stretch engages slowly adapting tactile mechanoreceptors…

Teleoperation(also: Remote Operation, Telerobotics)

Teleoperation is the remote control of a physical system — a robot, manipulator, vehicle, or surgical instrument — by a human operator at a distance, typically using force-feedback haptic devices that let the operator feel contact and resistance from the remote environment.…

Texture Perception(also: Texture sense, Tactile texture perception)

The perceptual capacity to detect and characterize surface properties — roughness, smoothness, bumpiness, graininess, stickiness, and directional patterns — through touch, vision, or cross-modal integration. Texture perception draws on multiple tactile channels including…

Video-to-Haptics(also: Video to Haptics, V2H)

A class of techniques that automatically generate haptic feedback (typically vibrotactile or force cues) from visual content in video, so that viewers feel sensations synchronised with what they see. Video-to-haptics offers a non-visual channel for conveying motion, impact, and…

Wearable Haptics(also: Wearable Haptic Device)

Haptic feedback systems designed to be worn on the body — rings, wristbands, gloves, vests, shoes, or exoskeletons — that deliver tactile, vibrotactile, or kinesthetic cues during mobile, hands-free use. Wearable haptics are a core building block of assistive navigation,…

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