The current iPhone does not give sensory feedback when a person presses keys on its touchscreen.
(Credit: CNET Networks)An anonymous Apple employee says company executives are in talks with Immersion to license its haptic technology for use in the iPhone, according to a report at Palluxo.com.
Haptic technology gives people sensory feedback--in the form of a vibration or pressure--when they use a touchscreen. Essentially, it makes touching a key on a touchscreen more akin to pressing a real button. Right now, the iPhone interface does not have that kind of interactivity, which can make using the touchscreen more challenging because there is no sensory indication that a key has been touched and the phone has registered it.
In separate news, Immersion on Thursday named Clent Richardson its new president and CEO. According to Immersion's press release, Richardson has previously held prominent positions at TiVo, Nortel, T-Mobile, and a little company called Apple. From that release:
Previously, at Apple, he reported to the co-founder and CEO as vice president of worldwide developer relations and worldwide solutions marketing and built and led a global team that established and strengthened developer and customer relationships around the world. During his more than five years with Apple, Richardson was also senior manager of evangelism, responsible for building and leading a worldwide team that managed global strategic relationships with Adobe, AOL, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Sun, and other industry leaders for all Apple divisions.
So it wouldn't be too surprising if it turns out Richardson is getting back in touch with old friends and forming ties between Apple and his new company.
Immersion's VibeTonz feedback technology is already in use in more than 10 million mobile phones, including the LG Voyager VX10000 and Samsung SCH-A930, according to the company. And its medical division creates tactile feedback technology for virtual surgery systems that help train surgeons.
Intel CTO Justin Rattner on Thursday showed off this 3D input device that includes 'haptic' force-feedback technology.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)SAN FRANCISCO--Most folks who try the Second Life virtual world grimace as the primitive 3D imagery drags its way onto their screens. Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner, though, smacks his lips with anticipation.
The chipmaker, always on the lookout for something that will give people a reason to buy a new PC, has reason to be excited about Second Life and its ilk. The technology, while still mostly for a fairly nerdy audience, has the potential to appeal to a broader audience than video games where overmuscled marines blow away aliens.
And just as significantly, Rattner said in a speech here Thursday at Intel Developer Forum, virtual worlds will stress out servers as well as PCs.
Intel has also eagerly anticipated some processor-taxing technologies that have come to fruition, including streaming audio and video, and some that haven't, such as speech recognition.
Rattner showed statistics that indicated a PC's processor bumps up to 20 percent utilization while browsing the Web, while its graphics processor doesn't even break above 1 percent.
Intel CTO Justin Rattner
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)But running Second Life--even with today's coarse graphics--pushes those to 70 percent for the main processor and 35 to 70 percent for the graphics processor, he said. The Google Maps Web site and Google Earth software pose intermediate demands.
Running a virtual worlds server is vastly more computationally challenging, though, when compared with 2D Web sites and even massively multiplayer online games such as Eve Online. An Eve Online server can handle 34,420 users at a time, but Second Life maxes a server out with just 160 users. Network capacity also is much more heavily used.
In addition, virtual worlds exercise parts of a processor such as math calculation engines that are idle when handling Web sites.
Immersion vowed Tuesday to fight Microsoft's breach-of-contract lawsuit regarding "haptic" technology that endows mice and joysticks with tactile feedback such as shaking and jerking.
"Immersion intends to defend this lawsuit vigorously," the San Jose, Calif.-based company said Tuesday.
Immersion sued Microsoft and Sony for patent infringement in 2002, but both suits were settled. Through a resulting sublicense agreement with Microsoft, Immersion agreed to pay Microsoft for any fee amounts from Sony in the event of a settlement with that company. That issue now is at issue in the breach-of-contract suit Microsoft filed against Immersion on Monday.
"Immersion believes that it is not obligated under the sublicense agreement with Microsoft to make any payment to Microsoft relating to the conclusion of its litigation with Sony Computer Entertainment," Immersion said in a statement.
Also according to the company, "In the event of a settlement with Sony Computer Entertainment, Immersion is obligated to pay Microsoft a minimum of $15 million for any amounts received from Sony up to $100 million, plus 25 percent of any amounts over $100 million up to $150 million, and 17.5 percent of any amounts over $150 million."
But the company avoided the term "settlement" in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing (PDF) filed in May, as reported by Todd Bishop at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
"As of March 19, 2007, we and Sony Computer Entertainment entered into a new business agreement to explore the inclusion of our technology in PlayStation format products. We have determined that we are not obligated under our agreements with Microsoft to make any payment to Microsoft relating to the conclusion of our litigation with Sony Computer Entertainment," Immersion said. "However, in a letter sent to us dated May 1, 2007, Microsoft disputed our position and stated that it believes we owe Microsoft at least $27.5 million. If Microsoft brings a lawsuit to further dispute our position, we intend to oppose Microsoft's claims and vigorously defend our position."
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