Sorry about that! Here's another attempt, including the article.
I found the following story on C|Net, the computer news network,
www.news.com/
The story is copyrighted by Reuters.
Some enterprising soul may want to check this thing out. Who
knows, we may be able to get a better feel for what's going on on
our screens, and do so at a more affordable price than for other
systems already under development.
Category Computing
Startup unveils "force-feedback" mouse
By Reuters
November 13, 1997, 9:50 a.m. PT
comdex The term user-friendly could soon become a touchy-feely
experience for PC users if a Silicon Valley startup succeeds in
bringing a new mouse to market next year.
The small company, Immersion, said its new Feelit Mouse will enable
users to feel items ranging from words and columns on a spreadsheet to
individuals to fast-moving objects in a 3D computer game.
The technology transforms the experience of using a mouse, which was
invented roughly 25 years ago for pointing at graphical objects and
manipulating them. With the new device, a user can feel the scratching
sensation when drawing a line on a simulated piece of paper, or feel
an object stretch as they reshape it. It can even help people "feel"
their way around pages on the Web by helping surfers literally feel
the location of links to other sites and by adding realism to 3D
sites.
"You could conduct a tug of war over the Internet," Immersion chief
executive officer Louis Rosenberg said in an interview. "You could
imagine feeling your way through a maze. People have the ability to
add sensations."
The company sees the force-feedback mouse being used by retailers,
such as car dealers and furniture stores, to help Web users feel the
texture of products such as cars, furnishings or children's toys. "If
you're selling a teddy bear, you can enable people to feel how soft
the teddy bear is," Rosenberg said.
Immersion, a 35-person outfit based in San Jose, California, is
privately held but has a big-name backer in the form of microprocessor
giant Intel, which has invested an undisclosed amount for a stake in
the startup.
Rosenberg said the technology will not be shipped in products for the
consumer market until the second half of 1998, but it will be
showcased at next week's Comdex trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Immersion will display early versions of the mouse at its own booth
and at Intel's booth in an attempt to generate enthusiasm among both
software developers and potential device manufacturers.
Immersion currently plans to license the mouse technology to
third-party manufacturers, following a model it set in 1995 when it
began licensing technology for computer game joysticks to a dozen
companies, including Logitech of Switzerland. That technology, dubbed
I-Force, is only now coming to the mass market.
The number of gaming titles which take advantage of Immersion's
I-Force technology will reach 100 by Christmas, up from 20 a year ago,
the company said.
Logitech and Microsoft, which recently launched its own gaming
joystick, dominate the market for mouse pointing devices, together
accounting for more than 60 percent of the 100 million sold each year.
Rosenberg said the major question was whether the design becomes a
niche product, with perhaps 5 percent of annual sales, or whether it
grows into more mainstream use. Immersion has already begun working
with other applications such as a finger-point device for laptops.
Immersion currently has more than 40 patents pending in the U.S.,
where three have been granted, and more than 70 patents pending
worldwide, Rosenberg said.
The company is pitching the force-feedback device, based on an
expanding patent portfolio, as useful even for mundane tasks such as
writing reports, letters and documents. "Right now you have no
feedback at all. When you can actually feel the space between words,
it's a lot easier," Rosenberg said. The company estimates products
will eventually retail for under $140.
Immersion was founded in 1993 and expects to post revenues of $4
million for 1997, which is before its licensees have begun shipping in
significant volumes.
Story Copyright (C) 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
-- Lloyd Rasmussen
Senior Staff Engineer, Engineering Section
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress 202-707-0535
(work) lras@loc.gov www.loc.gov/nls/
(home) lras@sprynet.com
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