Finding the latent semantics of haptic interaction research: a systematic literature review of haptic interaction using content analysis and network analysis

Abstract

As interest in multimodal and tangible interfaces is increasing in the field of human-robot interaction and virtual reality, haptics has been researched across areas such as engineering, computer science, psychology, and neuroscience. The main objective of the study was to construct a comprehensive review of the current haptic-related literature based on quantitative data derived from content analysis and network analysis. Using the results of content analysis and network analysis of 6,000 research articles on haptic interaction, the haptic-related literature was classified into two categories: 1) studies on technologies providing haptic stimuli and 2) studies on the human perception of haptic stimuli. Emotions in haptic feedback and haptic perception characteristics of various body sites were identified as potential research topics for further investigation. Greater research effort on understanding human haptic sensation and perception using the proposed systematic approach could accelerate the development of haptic interaction technology.