How haptic feedback works
Vibrant Composites is an independent guide to haptics technology. The guides explain how actuators and driver chips turn a software event into a tap you can feel, and what changes when that hardware goes into a watch strap, an assistive device, or a car dashboard.
Where to start
If you're new to haptics, start with the hardware. Most of the vibration you feel from a phone or watch comes from either a small motor spinning an off-center weight or a spring-mounted mass driven back and forth at its resonant frequency, and the actuator comparison sets those two against piezo parts and tap-style designs. The guide to haptic waveforms and drivers picks up from there and explains why the same part can feel crisp in one product and mushy in another.
If you're designing a product, the application guides cover the constraints each setting brings. A watch has a few grams of moving mass pressed against a wrist that may be swinging, which the wearables guide works through, while a car display has to move a heavy glass panel on a vibrating road, covered in car touchscreens and controls. For people who can't rely on sight or sound, the accessibility guide looks at where touch carries the whole message, and the essay on the evolution of haptic feedback traces how the field moved from buzzing motors toward clean taps.
Technology
The parts that make a device tap or buzz, the electronics that drive them, and the measurements engineers use to judge the result.
All technology guides- Actuator types comparedHow ERM motors, linear resonant actuators, piezo parts, and nonlinear tap designs move, and where each one fits.
- Waveforms and driversOverdrive, active braking, resonance tracking, and the effect libraries that make the same part feel crisp or mushy.
- Measuring haptic qualityAcceleration, rise and stop time, frequency response, noise, and latency, plus what bench numbers miss.
Applications
What changes when haptic hardware goes into real products, and what the people using them need from it.
All application guides- Haptics in wearablesWhy the wrist is a hard place to feel things, and how watches and bands build alerts people can tell apart.
- Accessibility and non-visual interfacesVibration alerts, screen reader cues, braille displays, and navigation aids for people who can't rely on sight or sound.
- Car touchscreens and controlsDisplay haptics, force sensing, steering wheel and seat warnings, and why some controls are going back to physical switches.
Articles
All articlesApril 15, 2026
The Evolution of Haptic Feedback
Most devices still signal through a buzzing motor. This essay traces how vibration became the default and why discrete taps change what a device can communicate.
March 25, 2026
Nonlinear Actuators and the Wearable UI Revolution
How restoring-force geometry lets an actuator snap through a single tap and settle without ringing, and what that opens up for wearable interfaces.
March 4, 2026
Designing a Tactile Language for Non-Visual Communication
Building a vocabulary of touch patterns people can learn, starting from what the skin can resolve and the encoding dimensions a tap-based system offers.