haptic

Etymology

and wired or haptic gloves (sense 2) incorporating technology developed by the Ames Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA]] From Ancient Greek ἁπτικός (haptikós, “able to come in contact with”), from ἅπτω (háptō, “to touch”) + -ικός (-ikós, “suffix forming an adjective from a noun”).

adj

1. Of or relating to the sense of touch.
   So there may be sciences of touch, taste, and smell; which will be Haptic, Geustic and Osphrantic. 1860, Isaac Barrow, “[Lectiones Mathematicæ] Lect. II. [Of the Parts of Mathematics.]”, in W[illiam] Whewell, editor, The Mathematical Works of Isaac Barrow, D.D. Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Cambridge: Printed at the University Press, →OCLC, page 43, footnote
   Although the five basic senses are often studied as individual systems covering visual, auditory, taste, smell, orientation and the haptic sensations, there is an interplay between the senses. 1999, Derek Clements-Croome, “Consciousness, Well-being and the Senses”, in Derek Clements-Croome, editor, Creating the Productive Workplace, London, New York, N.Y.: E. & F. N. Spon, Routledge, page 34
   An engineer tends to describe haptics primarily in terms of forces, elongations, frequencies, mechanical tensions, and shear forces. This of course makes sense and is important for the technical design process. However haptics is more than that. Haptic perceptions range from minor interactions in everyday life, e.g., drinking from a glass or writing this text, to a means of social communication, e.g., shaking hands or giving someone a pat on the shoulder, and very personal and private interpersonal experiences. 2014, Christian Hatzfield, Thorsten A[lexander] Kern, “Motivation and Application of Haptic Systems”, in Christian Hatzfield, Thorsten A. Kern, editors, Engineering Haptic Devices: A Beginner's Guide for Engineers (Springer Series on Touch and Haptic Systems), 2nd edition, London, Heidelberg: Springer, →DOI, page 4
2. (computing) Of or relating to haptics (“the study of user interfaces that use the sense of touch”).
   [T]he new standard should encompass other media, such as video, audio (both captured and synthetic), and in principle be extensible to new modalities such as haptic output and speech or gestural input, which have become increasingly integrated within graphics applications; […] 1999, David J. Duke, Ivan Herman, M. Scott Marshall, “Preface”, in PREMO: A Framework for Multimedia Middleware: Specification, Rationale, and Java Binding (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; 1591), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →ISSN, page v
   We might think, for example, about tele- (or remote) surgery, a technique that, now more than ever before, is enabling surgeons around the world to operate using haptic interfaces that control robotic systems located at different locations. 2014, Alberto Gallace, Charles Spence, “Introduction”, in In Touch with the Future: The Sense of Touch from Cognitive Neuroscience to Virtual Reality, Oxford: Oxford University Press
   Haptic feedback, or virtual touch, can also contribute to an IVE [immersive virtual environment] by providing forces or resistance with a physical device that resists a physical hand or finger. […] Vibration motors in smartphones and tablets can also be seen as a rudimentary form of haptic feedback. 2015, Cody O. Karutz, Jeremy N. Bailenson, “Immersive Virtual Environments and the Classrooms of Tomorrow”, in S. Shyam Sundar, editor, The Handbook of the Psychology of Communication Technology, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, page 295