In addition to the alternate haptic device shown in 
Initially, the word-haptic signal converter 1107 receives 1150 an input word which is a unit of a language, such as English. The word-haptic signal converter 1107 converts 1151 the input word into its component phonemes. For example, the word “apple” would be converted into the phonemes “ae,” “p,” “ah,” and “l(fā).”
The word-haptic signal converter 1107 converts 1152 the phonemes into a sequence of actuator signals. This sequence is formed from a concatenation of sub-sequences of actuator signals. Each phoneme corresponds to one of these sub-sequences of actuator signals. Each of the actuator signals are mapped to a cutaneous actuator of a two dimensional array of cutaneous actuators placed on an interior surface of a harness shaped to wrap around a user's arm. The interior surface of the harness facing the user's arm when worn by the user.