Besides traditional graphical user interfaces, a novel paradigm, haptic feedback (from the Greek haptesthai, meaning “contact” or “touch”), may improve the interface usability and interactivity. The tactile sense is the most sophisticated of all our senses as it incorporates pressure, heat, texture, hardness, weight, and the form of objects.

A haptic device, such as the SensAble Technologies PHANTOM® Omni™ illustrated the image below, typically has a robotic arm that tracks the position and orientation of a user-manipulated stylus. The tip of this stylus is the physical reference point of the device. Within a haptic application, there is a corresponding virtual reference point. As the user moves the stylus, the virtual reference point moves as well. When this virtual reference point (the yellow dot in the image below) comes into contact with a virtual object, a force is felt by the user through the stylus. In this manner, the user can "feel" additional features of the virtual object, including its mass, elasticity, and surface texture.