This document specifies requirements and recommendations for tactile/haptic hardware and software interactions. It provides guidance on the design and selection of hardware, software and combinations of hardware and software interactions, including:

—     the design or use of tactile/haptic inputs, outputs and/or combinations of inputs and outputs, with general guidance on their design or use as well as on designing or using combinations of tactile and haptic interactions for use in combination with other modalities or as the exclusive mode of interaction;

—     the tactile/haptic encoding of information, including textual data, graphical data and controls;

—     the design of tactile/haptic objects;

—     the layout of tactile/haptic space;

—     interaction techniques.

The recommendations given in this document are applicable to a variety of tactile/haptic devices, representing the real world or virtual or mixed realities (e.g. exoskeletons, wearables, force feedback devices, touchables, tangibles) and stimulation types (e.g. acoustic radiation pressure, electrical muscle stimulation) and they can also be found in virtual and augmented environments.

This document provides general information about how various forms of tactile/haptic interaction can be applied to various user tasks.

This document does not include guidance on the role of walking in virtual or mixed realities for tactile/haptic interaction.

NOTE            It is recognized that some interactive scenarios can be constrained by the limitation that a real workspace is to be modelled in a virtual environment. Objects can be in suboptimal positions or conditions for tactile/haptic interaction by virtue of the situation being modelled.