Recent Developments in Haptic Devices Designed for Hearing-Impaired People: A Literature Review

Abstract

Haptic devices transmit information to the user, using tactile stimuli to augment or replace sensory input. People with limited sensory abilities, such as vision or hearing can receive supplementary information by relying on them. This review analyses recent developments in haptic devices for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals by extracting the most relevant information from each of the selected papers. The process of finding relevant literature is detailed using the PRISMA guidelines for literature reviews. In this review, the devices are categorized to better understand the review topic. The categorization results have highlighted several areas of future research into haptic devices for hearing-impaired users. We believe this review may be useful to researchers interested in haptic devices, assistive technologies, and human-computer interaction.

Keywords: haptic devices; hearing impairment; human–computer interaction; sensory substitution systems; vibrotactile feedback; wearable devices.

Figure 1

PRISMA flow diagram for the review process displaying the number of excluded papers for each stage.

Figure 2

Papers by year of publication.

Figure 3

Countries by number of published papers.

Figure 4

Commonly used body parts.