It’s easy to take for granted the gentle buzz of your smartwatch when the timer you set for your boiling water goes off. Simple haptic feedback like this has helped humans and machines communicate more efficiently over the last half century. Now, recent breakthroughs in haptic feedback understanding could be the key to making computer interactions more fulfilling and pushing tech like AR/VR to the next level. Here is what you need to know.
The Evolution of Haptic Technology
Haptic technology refers to auxiliary computer feedback provided based on actions. The first instances of these touch-based feedback systems in use appeared during WWII. At this time, aeronautical engineers decided it was wise to install feedback on large aircraft systems. The feedback allowed pilots to better gauge the plane’s behavior.
In the 1960s, the technology expanded into other military applications before breaking into the commercial sector. Over the next two decades, the technology would expand into a variety of industries.
Notably, some of the public’s earliest interactions with haptic systems came from video games. These early systems would move the seat or steering wheel to represent rough terrain or getting your car rammed by another player.
Early Medical Applications
At the same time, haptic feedback systems were finding use in medical applications. Some of their first implementations were seen helping those with low vision or hearing problems. These systems assisted with the healing process and, in many instances, improved the quality of life in patients suffering long-term ailments.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, haptic feedback went from a rarity to something many consumers expected from their gaming experience. Items like silent notifications on cell phones and gaming options such as the Aura Interactor vest utilize simple haptic feedback to enhance the user experience and provide an additional layer of sensory communication.
Laying the Groundwork for Virtual Touch
Interestingly, even at this time, some visionary engineers saw haptic feedback as the key to creating a seamless virtual world. Evidence of these efforts exists, such as the PHANToM (Personal HAptic iNTerface Mechanism). The PHANToM allowed users to feel their VR experience via a thimble-like interface that would apply opposing pressure when they touched virtual items.
Electromechanical Feedback: The Foundation of Modern Haptics
The majority of haptic feedback systems rely on some form of electromechanical force, usually in the form of vibrations. This kinesthetic feedback is still the most common type of haptic feedback used today. You can find these systems in everyday items like your smartphone or watch.
Source – Hackaday
Electromechanical haptic systems come in many forms, but the most common method utilizes an actuator that applies a small rotational force to a weight. This action creates the familiar buzzing you find in your smartwatch.
More advanced versions of this system, like those found in today’s gaming console controllers, offer features like dual shock. This option provides multiple layers of force depending on the gaming scenario.
The Rise of Multisensory Haptics
The use of multisensory haptic devices is on the rise. These systems utilize other touch sensations to provide more sensory feedback and communication capabilities. These emerging actuation methods can include multi-level vibration, skin pinching or stretching, pressure, and temperature changes.
The use of a multi-sensing haptic system allows engineers to communicate more complex information via multiple avenues. These systems are seen by many analysts as the future. They offer cutaneous feedback and realistic touch sensations that enhance gaming, VR, AR, and computer interactions. Here are some of the top haptic feedback options today.
Polymeric Actuation
Polymeric actuators integrate smart polymers to provide stimulation to the user. These materials are unique because they alter their shape or texture when exposed to certain stimuli, like electrical current or force. These systems are extremely lightweight and don’t require any additional electrical components to operate. They can poke, pinch, tap, and conduct other forms of touch with users.
Fluidic Actuation
Fluidic actuation haptic feedback devices rely on pressurized air or fluid to provide energy to their haptic feedback components. These systems can operate in locations where electronic devices may be altered, such as underwater or in areas with high magnetic interference. Their unique design allows fluidic actuators to generate multi-level dynamic tactile responses.
Thermal Actuation
Another popular haptic method that engineers have continued to explore is thermal actuation. These systems will apply heat or drop the temperature to notify a person of a certain task or scenario. These systems offer a silent and simplified method to communicate that doesn’t require many moving parts.
Barriers to Widespread Haptic Adoption
Haptic developer options continue to increase thanks to technological breakthroughs. However, there are still many challenges that need to be overcome to achieve large-scale adoption. For one, there is the fact that every person’s skin is different, and their interpretation of what they feel differs. As such, what may seem like an obvious notification to one person may seem like nothing to another.
Variability
Much of this issue revolves around the variability of each person’s body and skin. Several factors, ranging from a person’s health, age, skin elasticity, moisture, and even body hair, can affect the performance of these devices. Also, factors like where the device is to be worn and how it’s attached can affect its ability to communicate with the wearer effectively. Variability is a prime concern for haptic systems developers. Key details like humidity and even the spacing of nerve receptors are vital info used by developers to ensure their device functions.
Tactile Masking
The term tactile masking refers to the loss of one of the tactile feedback sensations due to a cancelling effect. Nobody feels the same way, and as engineers devise more complex tactile communication methods, it’s vital to ensure that one tactile action does not eliminate the other’s sensation.
For example, you could have a device that vibrates and heats up when in a certain scenario. There could be users who won’t feel the vibration due to the heat or vice versa. These challenges must be overcome to make haptic feedback communication ideal.
Inside the Rice University Review: Next-Gen Haptics
Researchers from Rice University and other top institutions partnered to delve deep into the creation of haptic devices that mimic human touch with unprecedented fidelity. Their review, “Wearable multi-sensory haptic devices,” published in Nature Reviews Bioengineering, opens the door for more advanced haptic feedback interfaces in the future.
The paper begins by thoroughly analyzing the state of the wearables industry and tech. One of the researchers’ first discoveries is that more multisensory haptic technology-based systems are emerging.
These options will help to improve computer-human interactions by bridging the gap between digital and real-world touch sensations and allowing machines and humans to communicate nonverbally or visually.
Wearables
A significant amount of the review focuses on the importance of haptic devices in wearables. The team found that wearables will see the fastest integration of haptic feedback systems. They determined that key factors like wearability and comfort will play just as much of a role in large-scale adoption as capabilities.
The paper noted that wearable designers need to spend a lot of time thinking of the best locations and mounting for their units. These factors play a role in wearability due to comfort, as well as performance, as certain areas are more receptive to touch sensations versus others.
Problems with Haptic Feedback Wearables
Some of the current problems that wearers face when discussing upgrading haptic feedback systems include mounting systems, size, weight, and actuator capabilities. The smaller the wearable and the smaller the actuators, batteries, and other components must be made. In the future, it will be critical to shrink these systems in both size and weight.
Key Takeaways from the Haptic Review
The review highlights that optimizing haptic systems may require a better understanding of how the human brain interprets touch—not just making components smaller. A lot of the haptic feedback development must go towards understanding how the human brain perceives touch. This data will help future developers create smaller and more precise devices that offer high performance with minimal energy requirements.
Why This Matters: Benefits of Advanced Haptics
There are many benefits that this review brings to the market. For one, it helps engineers and consumers grasp the importance of this tech and how it continues to reshape markets. Additionally, this review helps the community to understand the vital points that must be considered when creating advanced multisensory haptic systems of the future.
Real-World Applications & Timeline:
There are lots of applications for improved human-machine interfaces that haptic systems can provide. These systems could make it easier and safer for people at their jobs. Imagine a safety alarm buzzing on your phone when you enter an area with low air quality or that is restricted. Here are some other applications for future haptic systems
Wearables
Smartwatches and other wearables are the obvious application for this tech. These devices can be set up to conduct nearly any task, and the ability to provide the user with a silent notification could help to save lives and avoid missed alerts. For example, imagine your navigation system buzzing your smartwatch at your next turn.
Gaming Accessories
As the fastest growing entertainment sector, there are billions in profit to be made by haptic device developers. Already, gaming consoles have become one of the main ways that people interact with haptic devices. In the future, these devices will become far more intricate and gain the ability to provide in-depth feedback of virtual environments, upping the gaming experience to a new level.
Immersive Media
The same type of system could be used to make media far more immersive. For decades, there have been those that offer haptic feedback systems, like chairs that move with the action or water that mists during certain scenes. Now, this same technology could make its way into your home.
Health Care
There’s a long list of medical applications for this technology. From creating prosthetics that let the wearer feel to heartbeat monitors that can notify the wearer of potential danger before it occurs, haptic systems are vital in the medical industry.
Engineers have already stated that this technology could be crucial in advancing medical robotic interactions. These systems could allow surgeons to conduct procedures using robots from across the globe and much more. For now, haptic systems will continue to help those with hearing and vision problems improve their life.
Robotics
Robotics systems can use haptic feedback to allow controllers to feel what their unit is encountering. These systems will allow engineers to provide an in-depth and seamless experience to the pilot. This feedback will allow the pilot to make minuscule measurements and conduct delicate tasks.
Haptic Feedback Timeline
This technology is already hitting the shelves. You can expect to see advanced multi-sensor haptic feedback systems integrated into devices within the next 3-5 years. Keenly, the data provided from this review will help to speed this process up and ensure tomorrow’s devices can provide efficient communication.
Haptic Feedback Researchers
Rice University hosted the haptic feedback review. The paper was led by Joshua J. Fleck. He received support from a team of engineers and researchers, including Zane A. Zook, Janelle P. Clark, Darren J. Lipomi, Marcia K. O’Malley, Claudio Pacchierotti, and Daniel J. Preston.
The team will now place its focus on refining its discoveries. They want to provide the industry with details regarding how to enhance response time, durability, and energy efficiency. These actions will help to drive adoption and innovation.
Industry Spotlight: Meta Platforms Inc.
There are several companies that have thrown their hat into the VR/AR ring. These firms have varying levels of participation, with some providing hardware and others creating virtual worlds like the metaverse.
Together, these market participants provide the tools needed to allow the average person to delve deep into the virtual world. Here’s one company leading the charge towards large-scale VR/AR adoption.
META Platforms Inc. (META +0.82%) entered the market in 2004 as Facebook. The company quickly rose to fame as the premier social media company in the world. By 2012, the company had gone public and was worth billions.
META Platforms continues to expand its operations, utilizing a variety of tactics, including high-level acquisitions of competitors like Instagram and WhatsApp. In 2021, Facebook rebranded again into Meta Platforms as part of its pivot towards its virtual world offerings. Today, it’s one of the most well-known metaverse infrastructure providers in the world.
Meta Platforms, Inc. (META +0.82%)
Only a few years later, META announced that it would again be pivoting from its metaverse project over to AI systems and model creation. This maneuver demonstrates the company’s continued innovative efforts and its goal to remain at the tip of cutting-edge technologies like haptic feedback and VR.
Latest on Meta Platforms Inc.
A New Generation of Haptic Feedback
The crucial details found in this review open the door to more immersive virtual reality, advanced robot-assisted surgery, prosthetics with touch feedback, remote-controlled robotics, and much more.
Notably, this review reveals that the human component of haptic feedback is just as important as the devices used. Thankfully, this review will help prepare future engineers seeking to create next-generation computer interfaces and more.
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Studies Referenced:
1. Fleck, J.J., Zook, Z.A., Clark, J.P. et al. Wearable multi-sensory haptic devices. Nat Rev Bioeng (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-025-00274-w