Delivery of haptics to select recipients of a message

Abstract

Systems and methods, by which a sender can deliver haptic messages to selected recipients within a larger group of recipients that are otherwise receiving a common message, are disclosed. The haptic messages can be individualized according to a recipient's profile, preference, and/or relationship with the sender. The haptic message can be created by the sender or selected from a pre-existing library of messages, and can be delivered automatically or assigned by the sender. The haptic messages can be dynamically changed in response to haptic feedback and supplemental data collected from the recipients that is used to update preferences and profiles of message recipients.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An apparatus for delivering a haptic effect, the apparatus comprising:
 memory storing a message and haptic effect data defining a haptic effect;   a transmitter configured to transmit the message and the haptic effect data; and   a programmable circuit communicatively associated with the memory and the transmitter, the programmable circuit programmed to deliver the message to a plurality of receiving devices, the programmable circuit further programmed to deliver the haptic effect data to only a subset of the receiving devices.