A Survey on Haptic Feedback through Sensory Illusions in Interactive Systems

A growing body of work in human-computer interaction (HCI), particularly work on haptic feedback and haptic displays, relies on sensory illusions, which is a phenomenon investigated in perception research. However, an overview of which illusions are prevalent in HCI for generating haptic feedback in computing systems and which remain underrepresented, as well as the rationales and possible undiscovered potentials therein, have not yet been provided. Existing surveys on human-computer interfaces using sensory illusions are not only outdated but, more importantly, they do not consider literature across disciplines, namely perception research and HCI. This paper provides a systematic literature review (SLR) of haptic feedback generated by sensory illusions. By reporting and discussing the findings of 90 publications, we provide an overview of how sensory illusions can be used and adapted to produce haptic feedback and how they are implemented and evaluated in HCI. We moreover identify current trends and research gaps and discuss ideas for possible research directions worth investigating.