Haptics Technology

Manhattan Scientifics provided $4.5 million seed funding to launch Novint Technologies Inc. This enables the ability to touch and realistically feel any images on one’s computer screen including texture, weight, motion and viscosity. Adding the sense of “touch” to computing is probably the most significant new development in computing we will see in our lifetimes. The company is gaining recognition and growing rapidly. (see Novint Media Highlights )

What is 3D touch?

The idea of virtual touch in computing is as foreign to most people as the concept of television was in the age of radio. But, like the innovation of TV, the Novint Falcon, powered by a patented 3D touch technology, represents an entirely new way to experience games. Touch is an integral part of how we experience things, both physically and emotionally. Until now, high-fidelity touch has been absent from computer interface. Like movies before the introduction of sound, today’s games are missing an important part of the sensory experience.

How the Novint Falcon Works

Users hold onto the Falcon’s interchangeable Grip (or handle) which moves left and right and forwards and backwards, like a computer mouse, but also moves up and down. The Grip can come in many shapes and forms and includes a quick disconnect feature which lets users change handles for specific uses or types of game play. As the Grip is moved, the computer keeps track of a 3D cursor. When the 3D cursor touches a virtual object, the computer registers contact with that object and updates currents to motors in the device to create an appropriate force to the device’s handle, which the user feels.

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