Messages from the incoming and outgoing editors-in-chief

I am truly honored to be the new Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of a such prestigious journal as the IEEE Transactions on Haptics (TOH), which is a pillar of our community. This opportunity is a privilege but also a responsibility, as it will be very challenging to meet the high standards set by the two previous EICs, J. Edward Colgate (2007-2013) and Lynette Jones (2014-2019). I had the honor to serve as Associate Editor-in Chief with them, and I am thrilled to serve our haptics community in this crucial role. The journal publishes the best papers on foundational questions of haptic science, as well as on the technological development of interfaces and their applications. Haptics is indeed becoming very popular in very different domains, with a prominent role in all those applications where humans interact with VR, AR, robots and - of course - other humans. Research on haptics is intrinsically interdisciplinary, spanning across neuroscience, robotics, physiology, mechatronics, VR, and psychology. This variety of topics and interests is one of the main strengths of our journal, as well as a crucial feature of its success. In the last few years, interest in haptics has been growing exponentially, thanks to its scientific appeal and the enabling nature of its technology. For this reason, it is paramount that a respected journal such as ToH encourages and supports the rigorous development of scientific and technological progress in the field. One of the key factors that has made TOH a success is that both J. Edward Colgate and Lynette Jones recruited exceptional editorial boards. During my term, I will follow their example because I am convinced that the editorial board has an essential influence on the character and quality of the journal, determining its content with their day-to-day decisions on the submitted manuscripts. It is with great pleasure that I introduce two renowned scientists in haptics, Marcia O’Malley from Rice University (USA) and Seungmoon Choi from Pohang University of Science and Technology (Korea), as the new Associate Editorsin-Chief of the ToH editorial board. Dr. O’Malley has been working on exoskeletons and wearable haptics, as well as on haptic feedback and shared control techniques for training and rehabilitation in virtual environments, and psychophysical studies to evaluate the effect of haptic cues on human motor adaptation and skill acquisition. Dr. Choi has been conducting research on haptic rendering of hardness, texture, and deformation, as well as on haptic augmented reality, tactile rendering and perception for touchscreens in mobile devices and cars, somatosensory skill modeling and transfer, laser haptics, data-driven haptic rendering, and automatic generation of haptic and 4D content. Moreover, five new colleagues, with recognized scientific expertise and standing in haptic science have joined the Editorial Board of TOH Matteo Bianchi, Christian Holz, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, Gionata Salvietti, and Yoshihiro Tanaka. Dr. Bianchi has been conducting research on wearable haptics and haptic-related applications in teleoperation and augmented reality, human tactile-related perception, and assistive technologies. Dr. Holz’s expertise lies in devising haptic feedback devices for augmented and virtual reality applications as well as on miniaturized body-worn and hand-held controllers that still sustain human-scale input forces while rendering analog haptic feedback. Dr. Kajimoto’s main specialties are tactile displays and sensors, as well as tactile illusions and their applications. He has been working on electro-tactile displays, vibration displays, and wearable displays and on perception of skin shear deformation and its applications to navigation. Dr. Salvietti has been conducting research on multi-contact teleoperation and its applications in virtual reality. He is currently working on the design of haptic interfaces to interact with assistive robots and collaborative robotic grippers. Dr. Tanaka has been studying haptic perception in terms of contact mechanics and psychophysics. His recent interests include individual differences in haptic perception, as well as haptic applications for manufacturing, medicine, and rehabilitation. The Editorial Board reflects the geographical and disciplinary diversity of our field and it will be enriched with more Associate Editors in the next few months. IEEE TOH is a relatively young journal, and during the next five years we will work with the Editorial Board, the Management Committee, and the administrative support from IEEE, namely Samantha Jacobs and AndreAnna McLean, to consolidate the results obtained by J. Edward Colgate and Lynette Jones in terms of quality and impact within the scientific community, as well as continuing to encourage active participation from subscribers, readers, reviewers, and contributors of the journal. Moreover, we will work towards new initiatives for the further development of the IEEE Transactions on Haptics. I want to conclude my first editorial by thanking all the current and past members of the Editorial Board. In particular, I want to thank Lynette Jones for her exemplary dedication and hard work, with which she has led the journal during the last six years. Her advice and expertise were and have been very important in this first phase, and I am sure they will be crucial also in the future. Thank you, Lynette! It is my pleasure to conclude this editorial with Lynette Jones presenting the current issue and in particular the work she did in collaboration with the 2020 IEEE Haptics Symposium. Domenico Prattichizzo, Editor-in-Chief --- In this issue we feature papers that are part of a new initiative for the journal in which we have partnered with the 2020 IEEE Haptics Symposium. Authors submitted their conference papers to the Transactions on Haptics (TOH) for consideration for publication in the TOH and if accepted, presentation at the Haptics Symposium. Of the 86 papers submitted to the journal in this track, 36 were accepted for publication in the journal and presentation at the conference. These papers underwent the normal review process for the journal. Those papers not accepted by the journal were forwarded to the Haptics Symposium Conference Editorial Board who decided which of these papers they would include in the conference. Of the 50 papers referred to the Conference Editorial Board, 13 were accepted for the conference and will be published in the conference proceedings. Due to the unexpectedly large number of submissions in this track and the tight time frame for the review cycle, a number of Guest Editors agreed to join the Editorial Board to help with the workload. I am extremely grateful to Andrea Bianchi, Knut Drewing, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, Jin Ryong Kim, Roberta Klatzky, Anna Metzger, Shogo Okamoto, Claudio Pacchierotti, Evren Samur, Hiroyuki Shinoda, Hong Tan and Michael Wiertlewski for all their work as Guest Editors in helping with the review process. The breadth of topics covered in this issue reflects the highly interdisciplinary nature of haptics research. As the mantle of leadership of this journal passes to Domenico Prattichizzo as the new Editor-in-Chief, this issue attests to the vitality of the field. Lynette A. Jones, Editor-in-Chief, 2014-2019.