The haptic sensations may correspond to words of a social touch lexicon including words for greeting, parting, giving attention, helping, consoling, calming, pleasant, and reassuring touches. The haptic sensations may also correspond to spoken words from a user that are converted to haptic output, as illustrated and described in detail below with respect to FIGS. 17A-17E. The different haptic sensations, when staggered in time and distance, create continuous tactile motion along the body 1500 of the user from the first location (location of the first cutaneous actuator 1508A) to the last location (location of the last cutaneous actuator). The continuous tactile motion is intended to transmit the words to the body 1500 of the user, as described above with respect to FIGS. 2, 3, and 8A through 8F.
As illustrated in FIG. 15B, the first cutaneous actuator 1508A begins generating the first haptic sensation at a first location on the body 1500 of the user at a first time t1. In one embodiment, the haptic sensations may be haptic vibrations. The amplitude of the first haptic sensation enables the device to transmit sophisticated haptic communication effects. The information related to the words of the social touch lexicon described above are communicated by altering the amplitude (e.g., 1532) of the haptic sensations (e.g., vibrations). By changing the amplitude and patterns of vibration, a large number of combinations, rhythms or messages may be reproduced.
