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Mouser Electronics White Paper Basic Principles of Haptics Haptics is a wide area of study that covers the sensations of physical touch and physical object interaction. This sense can be expanded in haptics to the complete experience of sensory feedback, including tactile and force feedback. Additional haptic considerations pertain to emulating features such as surface texture, weight, shape, temperature, and the dynamic effects of 3D objects. Haptic technology utilizes kinesthetic communication and uses induced kinetic forces to convey information to a user. Haptic devices are generally composed of tactile sensors—measuring the forces exerted by a user—and haptic actuators—imparting kinetic forces to a user. Examples of haptic experiences include the rumble vibration systems in gaming controllers and gloves that accurately simulate the sensations of interacting with 3D objects in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) environments. The two main categories of haptic feedback are kinesthetic feedback and tactile feedback (Figure 3). Kinesthetic feedback refers to how a user perceives the size and density of an object through physical experience. This feedback can either be passive or active. When only a user's movements are impeded, this is called passive kinesthetic feedback. Active kinesthetic feedback involves imparting force and motion to a user. Tactile feedback involves the perception of touch when interacting with an object. This feedback can be either non-spatial or spatial. Non-spatial tactile feedback uses methods such as vibration patterns to convey the sense of textures or physical ambiance from non-localized sources. Spatial tactile feedback involves communicating information about an object's edges and shape. This type of tactile feedback is generally realized using contact haptic feedback or even electrical stimulation. Figure 3: Types of haptic feedback. (Source: Mouser Electronics)

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