haptic
(adj.) Of or relating to the sensation of touch. From the Greek haptesthai, to touch.
Haptics is the science of applying tactile sensation to human interaction with computers. A haptic device is one that involves physical contact between the computer and the user, usually through an input/output device, such as a joystick or data gloves, that senses the body’s movements. By using haptic devices, the user can not only feed information to the computer but can receive information from the computer in the form of a felt sensation on some part of the body. This is referred to as a haptic interface. For example, in a virtual reality environment, a user can pick up a virtual tennis ball using a data glove. The computer senses the movement and moves the virtual ball on the display. However, because of the nature of a haptic interface, the user will feel the tennis ball in his hand through tactile sensations that the computer sends through the data glove, mimicking the feel of the tennis ball in the user’s hand.
Read Also:
- haptic interface
Communication, or interface, with a computer through a tactile method involving a device that senses body movement, such as a data glove.
- hard
The term hard is used to describe anything that is permanent or physically exists. In contrast, the term soft refers to concepts, symbols and other intangible and changeable objects.
- hard boot
Same as cold boot.
- hard bounce
When e-mailing, hard bounce is used to describe an e-mail that has bounced back to the sender undelivered without having been accepted by the recipient’s mail server. Compare with soft bounce.
- hard card
A hard disk drive and controller on an expansion card. Unlike most disk drives that are either external to the computer or fit in one of the disk drive bays, a hard card slips into an expansion slot. Hard cards are often faster than conventional disk drives, and easier to install. Their storage capacities, however, […]