As shown in FIG. 17A, the haptic communication system 1700 includes a speech signal generator (e.g., microphone 1704 or speech synthesizer 1712) to receive speech sounds 1702 uttered by a user or a textual message 1710 typed out by the user and generate speech signals 1706 or 1714 corresponding to the speech sounds 1702 or the textual message 1710. For example, the microphone 1704 may generate the speech signals 1706 by digitizing the speech sounds 1702. The microphone 1704 is a transducer that converts the speech sounds 1702 into an electrical signal. The electrical signal may be an analog signal, a digital signal, or a combination thereof. The microphone 1704 may use any of several different methods (e.g., a coil of wire suspended in a magnetic field, a vibrating diaphragm, or a crystal of piezoelectric material, etc.,) to convert the air pressure variations of the speech sounds 1702 to the electrical signal. In addition, the microphone may include an analog-to-digital converter to digitize the electrical signal to the speech signals 1706. The microphone 1704 transmits the speech signals 1706 to the envelope encoder over a wired or a wireless connection.
The keyboard 1708 may be used by the user to type out the textual message 1710. The keyboard may be part of a personal computer, a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, etc. The keyboard transmits the textual message 1710 to the speech synthesizer 1712 over a wired or a wireless connection.
