The 2012 IEEE Haptics Symposium celebrates 20 years of multidisciplinary research relating to the human sense of touch. Held since 1992, this conference has become a vibrant forum where psychophysicists, engineers, and designers come together to share advances, spark new collaborations, and envision a future that benefits from rich physical interactions between humans and computers, generated through haptic (force and tactile) devices. In 2012, we are accommodating the growth in this community with an extended four-day program in an independently-run meeting.

HAPTICS has long been a central venue for sharing engineering and psychophysical advances; 2012 is the year of the user. This conference will feature spotlights on research contributions and methodologies for engaging and useful, usable interactions, applications and design tools. We will engage our public and industry community, making our work more available to the outside world; and connect our emerging young talent to the industry partners who will employ them.

We solicit submissions describing advances in:

Haptic interactions and their design
Psychophysics and perception
Biomechanics and motor control
Haptic device design and dynamics
Haptic rendering and modeling
Control system design and analysis
Low-cost, embedded / situated / ubiquitous haptic devices and applications
Systems and networks involving haptic interactions
Human-robot interactions involving touch
Touch sensing
Application of the above, including areas such as education, entertainment and games, rehabilitation and health, art and music, collaboration, computer-aided design and prototyping, skills training, guidance, simulation and data visualization
We look forward to seeing you in Vancouver in March.