Controlling haptic sensations from a vibrotactile feedback device connected to a computer. The vibrotactile device includes an actuator having a rotatable mass, and receives information, which causes a periodic control signal to be produced. The control signal controls the actuator to rotate the mass to induce a vibration in the device, where a magnitude and a frequency of the vibration can be adjusted independently of each other by adjusting the control signal. Vibration magnitude is based on control signal duty cycle, and vibration frequency is based on control signal frequency. Kinesthetic haptic effects can be output on the vibrotactile device by mapping the kinesthetic effect to a vibrotactile effect that causes vibrotactile forces to be output. The kinesthetic haptic effect can be a periodic or nonperiodic effect.