Immersion Announces Integration Kit and Program for Implementing Touch Feedback in Touchscreens

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Feb. 27, 2006--Immersion Corporation , a leading developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, announces that it is now shipping a TouchSense(R) Integration Kit. The kit, along with a new TouchSense Integration Program, can help system integrators and manufacturers create tactile feedback solutions for touchscreen user interfaces. These new "active" interfaces let users feel that on-screen buttons press and release like physical buttons.

"Integrators and OEMs can use our TouchSense Integration Kit and Program to significantly improve traditional passive touchscreens, producing a stronger user connection with affirming tactile responses," says Michael D. Levin, Immersion vice president. "Our technology restores rich, tactile information conveyed through mechanical controls, such as when typing on a keyboard or pressing a switch. The result is a more intuitive, personal, and natural user experience."

Tactile feedback can improve touchscreen-based applications in a variety of markets such as banking, health care, hospitality, manufacturing, military, retail, and transportation. Frances D. Mendelsohn, president of Summit Research Associates, an analysis and consulting firm, says that TouchSense technology has come at the right time.

"Today we see an explosion of kiosk projects across many market sectors. Our recently issued Kiosks and Interactive Technology study reports that the number of installed kiosks grew from 461,000 in mid-2004 to an impressive 734,000 by the end of 2005. We continue to project strong kiosk market growth, with the number of installed kiosks to double over the next three years. Even organizations that tried kiosks and failed are coming back for another attempt to get it right -- and TouchSense technology can help them. It's enormously important that the user interface engage the customer. Immersion's tactile feedback can significantly improve engagement and user friendliness."

Immersion's TouchSense Integration Kit provides the components, software, and guidelines needed to quickly and easily integrate the technology into production-ready designs. The TouchSense System is designed to work with a wide variety of sizes and most touchscreen technologies.

The TouchSense Integration Program supplies support and training to help members deliver high-quality implementations of the technology. Members can offer their customers Immersion's proven integration processes and capabilities developed over several years. This knowledge and experience can help achieve a high-quality product in a reduced time frame.

Among those who have joined the program:

-- Advanced Input Systems, leading designer and manufacturer of custom user interface devices and systems for medical and industrial equipment

-- StacoSwitch, leading worldwide supplier of switches, indicators, keyboards, and controls to military and commercial OEMs

"Immersion's touch feedback technology can improve medical equipment user interfaces in several ways," explains Randy Noland, director of marketing, Advanced Input Systems. "Audible cues can be disturbing to patients and difficult to distinguish from other equipment sounds. Plus, health care personnel should be able to focus their attention on the patient, not on equipment operation. Designing with TouchSense technology, we can create user interfaces that use the sense of touch to help deliver better, safer, and more efficient care with less disruption to patients."

"Many types of military and commercial electronic equipment require interfaces that help users perform quickly and accurately," says Kevin Judd, vice president of marketing, StacoSwitch. "The sense of touch has a reflex-rate response and it can also ease the cognitive loading required for precision control. The TouchSense Integration Kit and Immersion's support will help us supply these benefits to our customers' mission-critical products."

"Our TouchSense system delivers user benefits that can translate into business benefits," states Levin. "These include unmistakable confirmation that can lead to faster and more accurate transactions, improved interactivity that can create a more engaging and satisfying user experience, and powerful differentiation that reflects a quality brand."

About Advanced Input Systems (www.advanced-input.com)

As a leading designer and manufacturer of application-specific input devices for OEMs worldwide, Advanced Input Systems provides end-to-end solutions with complex product range and low cost of ownership. Operating within the Interface Technologies Group of Esterline, Advanced Input Systems has developed over 2,000 different input systems for more than 1,000 companies.

About StacoSwitch (www.stacoswitch.com)

For over 40 years, StacoSwitch has been a leading worldwide supplier of lighted pushbutton display switches and indicators, molded elastomer keyboards, and lighting and switching electronic controllers. The company serves the needs of high-reliability switch markets, including military, commercial, hazardous waste, and medical instrumentation.

About Immersion (www.immersion.com)

Founded in 1993, Immersion Corporation is a recognized leader in developing, licensing, and marketing digital touch technology and products. Bringing value to markets where man-machine interaction needs to be made more compelling, safer, or productive. Immersion helps its partners broaden market reach by making the use of touch feedback as critical a user experience as sight and sound. Immersion's technology is deployed across automotive, entertainment, medical training, mobility, personal computing, and three-dimensional simulation markets. Immersion's patent portfolio includes over 500 issued or pending patents in the U.S. and other countries.