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PC REPORT
Friday, February 20, 1998
Touch Me, Feel Me, Force-feedback Me
Now you can touch the Web, with the new Feel-It Mouse, from Immersion Corporation,
in San Jose, Calif. This high-tech gadget turns the ordinary desktop mouse from a
point-and-click input device into a virtual hand that let's users feel Web content.
Using a technology known as "force feedback," the Feel-It Mouse simulates
physical bumps, jumps, vibrations, jolts, and shocks using tiny motors embedded in
the unit's base. Feedback forces are applied to the Feel-It Mouse's joystick-like
handle.
Immersion officials claim the mouse is sensitive enough to transmit the sensation
of running your hand over fine fabric textures. Such promises of virtual touch aren't
new. Force feedback systems have been available in joysticks for some time, but many
computer gamers say the technology feels more like a big vibrating potato, and not
the futuristic virtual touch its progenitors promise.
Rich Levin, KYW Newsradio.
Rich Levin's PC Report
As heard on KYW Newsradio 1060 AM Philadelphia
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Copyright (C) 1998 Rich Levin, all rights reserved Subscribe at http://24.3.97.12
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