A somatosensation feedback apparatus, comprising: an input device; a processing module configured to control an array of tactile interface devices and coupled to the input device, wherein the processing module is configured to control the array of tactile interface devices by performing the steps of: receiving samples of a data signal from the input device; and transforming the data samples into spatial patterns by transforming the data samples from a time domain to a frequency domain using a discrete cosine transform to obtain a first set of coefficients; compressing the transformed data samples to reduce a dimensionality of the received samples by reducing the first set of coefficients to a smaller second set of coefficients, wherein the second set of coefficients are generated from the first set of coefficients and correspond to a distribution of peak coefficient locations found in speech audio, which represent formant components, which are components of speech phonemes, wherein the distribution of peak coefficient locations is generated in an offline analysis; and generating control signals for operating the array of tactile interface devices by mapping the compressed samples to one or more devices of the array of tactile interface devices. an input device; a processing module configured to control an array of tactile interface devices and coupled to the input device, wherein the processing module is configured to control the array of tactile interface devices by performing the steps of: receiving samples of a data signal from the input device; and transforming the data samples into spatial patterns by transforming the data samples from a time domain to a frequency domain using a discrete cosine transform to obtain a first set of coefficients; compressing the transformed data samples to reduce a dimensionality of the received samples by reducing the first set of coefficients to a smaller second set of coefficients, wherein the second set of coefficients are generated from the first set of coefficients and correspond to a distribution of peak coefficient locations found in speech audio, which represent formant components, which are components of speech phonemes, wherein the distribution of peak coefficient locations is generated in an offline analysis; and generating control signals for operating the array of tactile interface devices by mapping the compressed samples to one or more devices of the array of tactile interface devices. receiving samples of a data signal from the input device; and transforming the data samples into spatial patterns by transforming the data samples from a time domain to a frequency domain using a discrete cosine transform to obtain a first set of coefficients; compressing the transformed data samples to reduce a dimensionality of the received samples by reducing the first set of coefficients to a smaller second set of coefficients, wherein the second set of coefficients are generated from the first set of coefficients and correspond to a distribution of peak coefficient locations found in speech audio, which represent formant components, which are components of speech phonemes, wherein the distribution of peak coefficient locations is generated in an offline analysis; and generating control signals for operating the array of tactile interface devices by mapping the compressed samples to one or more devices of the array of tactile interface devices.