Haptic perception (Greek: haptόs “palpable”, haptikόs “suitable for touch”) literally denominates "to grasp something". Perception in this case is achieved through active exploration of surfaces and objects by a moving subject as opposed to passive contact of a static subject during tactile perception. The term Haptik was coined by the German Psychologist Max Dessoir who suggested in 1892 to name the academic research about the sense of touch in the style of “acoustics” and “optics”.