Glossary

Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.

21 results found in Haptics.

Affective Touch (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 p…
Anticipatory Grasp (Pregrasp Planning, Pre-grasp, Pre-shaping, Anticipatory Grasp Planning)
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…
Audio-to-Haptics Translation (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 p…
C-tactile Afferents (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 associ…
Deep Pressure Therapy (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. …
Finger Assistive Device (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 classi…
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…
Haptic Design (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 …
Haptic Graph (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 …
Haptic Icon (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, mat…
Haptic Rendering (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 rende…
Kinesthetic (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 i…
Kinesthetic Feedback (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 cutane…
Mediated Social Touch (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 sy…
Passive Haptic Feedback (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 …
Phase-Based Motion Processing (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 …
Skin Stretch (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 fo…
Teleoperation (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…
Texture Perception (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 integ…
Video-to-Haptics (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. …