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Open research questions in Tactile and Sensory Interactions

170 gap statements mined from Tactile and Sensory Interactions papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 991 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Future research can build on the study's findings to further investigate the use of sonification in enhancing the experience of embodied creative tasks. Future research can apply the study's guidelines to various domains and contexts.

    Embodied knowledge as a design probe in a user-centered design study of a sonification system for crochet · 2026 · DOI

  • The study aims to address this gap by investigating how users with differing embodied knowledge can improve the design of spatial user interaction systems.

    Embodied knowledge as a design probe in a user-centered design study of a sonification system for crochet · 2026 · DOI

  • Traditional tools and commercial voice assistants have limitations in providing real-time environmental awareness. Visually impaired individuals face major challenges in navigating their surroundings and accessing real-time information.

    AURA: A Comprehensive Survey of AI-Based Assistants for the Visually Impaired · 2026 · DOI

  • It highlights the need to evaluate the ecological validity of gestures and their impact on cognitive load and user experience.

    Beyond Faders: Understanding 6DoF Gesture Ecologies in Music Mixing · 2026 · DOI

  • Future work should include professional mixers and larger samples to examine how gesture preferences differ with experience and evolve over time. Our paper presents an initial groundwork for deeper ecological validity studies that move towards more generalizable 6DoF movement in XR environments.

    Beyond Faders: Understanding 6DoF Gesture Ecologies in Music Mixing · 2026 · DOI

  • Existing assistive systems have limited semantic comprehension and remain either cost-prohibitive or dependent on internet infrastructure. There is a need for a standalone wearable device that can provide real-time environmental intelligence to visually impaired users. The absence of multi-instance object counting in existing systems can lead to verbose audio output.

    AI-SenseVision: An Intelligent Wearable Assistive Framework for Real-Time Environmental Perception in Visually Impaired Persons · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of dexterity for conformal wearing to extract complicated human inputs. The need for wearable tactile devices that can extract complicated human inputs. The gap in precise measurement of slippage direction and displacement.

    An electronic fingerprint device based on spiral patterned tactile pixel array for augmented human-machine interactions · 2026 · DOI

  • The next phase of development will focus on improving ergonomics and sensor coverage. Mounting the device on a headband or chest plate would free the user’s hands and align the sensing direction with the natural field of movement. Expanding the vertical field of view through additional sensors or wider-angle transducers would allow detection of overhead and ground-level obstacles.

    Ultrasonic Obstacle Detection Device · 2026 · DOI

  • The sensory properties of the breast are not well understood. There is a lack of research on the tactile localization of the breast, areola, and nipple.

    Tactile localization of the breast, areola, and nipple · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of effective navigation systems for people with visual impairments. The need for a system that combines computer vision and haptic feedback methods.

    Biophysical substitution of a microcontroller module for personalized tactile navigation systems for people with visual impairments · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite advancements in sensing technologies that allow touch input across surfaces with diverse curvatures, the effects of surface curvature on user behavior and performance in indirect XR touch interaction remain underexplored.

    CurvedTouch: Effects of Surface Curvature and Cursor Mapping Method for XR Touch Input on Curved Surface · 2026 · DOI

  • The performance requires a specific setup and equipment. The duration of the performance is limited to between 4 and 7 minutes. The stage area is limited to approximately 4 m × 4 m.

    parasitic · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research can be done on the use of wearable devices and sensor systems in physical performances. The paper suggests exploring the potential of other types of relationships between performers in a physical performance.

    parasitic · 2026 · DOI

  • The current Accessible Digital Musical Instruments lack expressive agency for musicians with complex motor impairments. The current instruments impose high physical barriers and have limited accessibility.

    Peripersonal Modular Interfaces for Care Ecologies: Decoupling Sensing and Surface in Accessible Digital Musical Instruments · 2026 · DOI

  • The results will expand our open-source collection of accessible materials and will be used to improve our style guide. Finally, we view this work as a precursor towards improving the accessibility of teaching analog synthesis. We plan to design lesson plans and curricular materials that include a combination of listening/performance and synthesis foundations and lead workshops with BLV adults.

    SynthAccess: First Steps Towards Improving Synthesizer Accessibility for Blind Musicians · 2026 · DOI

  • Future work includes improving the prototype’s precise evaluation, including both sound localisation and manipulation tasks, to provide concrete quantitative data supporting the argument that vibrotactile feedback can assist with spatial audio mixing and make the task more inclusive and accessible for BVI music producers.

    Designing a Spatial Vibrotactile Interface for Accessible Spatial Audio Mixing by Blind and Visually Impaired Music Producers. · 2026 · DOI

  • The study had a limited sample size of 38 participants. The study only used a single type of robotic limb, the Third Thumb. The study did not investigate the long-term effects of using indirect tactile signals for touch localisation.

    Spatial localisation of touch on a robotic limb in the absence of direct haptic feedback · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of somatosensory receptors in artificial limbs limits users' access to haptic feedback. There is a need to investigate alternative sources of haptic feedback, such as indirect tactile signals.

    Spatial localisation of touch on a robotic limb in the absence of direct haptic feedback · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a clear opening for a system that weaves together real-time object detection, spatial reasoning, and feedback that feels natural and fast.

    A Real-Time Assistive Navigation Framework for Visually Impaired Users Using Spatial Reasoning and Computer Vision · 2026 · DOI

  • Vicarious touch is theoretically relevant because it recruits social-cognitive and affective mechanisms beyond primary somatosensory processing; however, most prior studies have focused on neural correlates in neurotypical adults, with limited behavioral investigation and scarce evidence in autistic populations.

    Vicarious Perception of Touch in ASD : The Role of Empathy and Touch Experiences · 2026 · DOI

  • It remains unknown if the cognitive costs of our temporal patterns…

    Two limbs are better than one: multi-limb tactons for precise hand navigation · 2026 · DOI

  • Extending HapCap by feeding haptic contact signals from the dataset as additional input. Statistically examining whether VLM ratings agree with human ratings. Exploring training-free techniques to enhance the inference ability of existing VLMs.

    HapCap: Estimating Haptic Adjectives with Vision-Language Model for Dataset Annotation · 2026 · DOI

  • The challenge of complex graphical objects in data integration for visually impaired people. The limitation of Braille displays in parsing graphical objects.

    VIJB: a companion of the JBROWSE genome browser for the visually impaired people · 2026 · DOI

  • The project aims to continue collaborating with industry to expand its impact. The project aims to develop further adaptations for other synthesizers.

    SynthAccess: First Steps Towards Improving Synthesizer Accessibility for Blind Musicians · 2026 · DOI

  • Further studies on the role of visual context stability in word learning. Investigation of fast mapping in older children. Comparison of different methods for studying word learning.

    Influence of Visual Context Stability on Word Learning in Fourteen- and Nineteen-Month-Old Children · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Tactile and Sensory Interactions

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Future research can build on the study's findings to further investigate the use of sonification in enhancing the experience of embodied creative tasks (“Embodied knowledge as a design probe in a user-centered design study of a…”, 2026); (2) Future work should include professional mixers and larger samples to examine how gesture preferences differ with experience and evolve over time (“Beyond Faders: Understanding 6DoF Gesture Ecologies in Music Mixing”, 2026); (3) There is a need for a standalone wearable device that can provide real-time environmental intelligence to visually impaired users (“AI-SenseVision: An Intelligent Wearable Assistive Framework for Real-Time…”, 2026); (4) The lack of dexterity for conformal wearing to extract complicated human inputs (“An electronic fingerprint device based on spiral patterned tactile pixel array…”, 2026); (5) The sensory properties of the breast are not well understood (“Tactile localization of the breast, areola, and nipple”, 2026). 170 gap statements have been mined from Tactile and Sensory Interactions papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 991 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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