This paper describes the current technologies of tactile perception, sensing and display around the world. On the basis of comprehensive analysis, this paper points out that the development of tactile sensing and display technology have been moving away from tele-presence applications and may become two independent research directions. Tactile sensing mainly focuses on the fields of intelligent robots and medical rehabilitation, while tactile display might cover more fields, including virtual reality, film and television, games and entertainment, industrial design, drawing and painting, education and training, and industrial touch screens, besides the traditional applications of robot tele-presence and tactile vision substitution.This paper concludes by presenting the future trends of tactile fields.