We discussed Novint’s Falcon controller earlier. Our Curt Harler had a chance to chat with Novint’s CEO Tom Anderson recently to learn more about the company and the product:

Novint wants its new Falcon controller to fly into the hands of the public, thanks to its sweet technology and a sweet deal. They are kicking off sales of the controller with a special offer aimed at gamers. Early sales of the Falcon will be bundled with a couple of dozen games and will come with a collector’s version of the controller.

But the new product is only the first in what the company hopes will be a revolutionary series of hardware and software offerings for motion applications.

“I really believe that this technology and this field will change the way people use computers,” says Tom Anderson, CEO of Novint Technologies, Albuquerque, NM.

According to Anderson, the first controllers will be offered as a Limited Edition Novint Falcon bundled with Newton’s Monkey Business™, a collection of 24 touch-enabled minigames, the Feelin’ It™: Sports Pack, and two grips. Initially, it is being sold on-line at $189, which is $50 off the $239 MSRP. This offer is good indefinitely – but probably will be withdrawn in the next month or so, Anderson indicates. It includes free shipping within the United States. The bundle includes a Novint Falcon Limited Edition Game Controller, a standard Novint Falcon Grip, and a Limited Edition Novint Falcon Grip, a USB cable, the game packs, a free game download (valued up to $19.95) the installation CD and the power supply.

“It is neat technology,” Anderson says. “It is applicable across all genres.”

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Wired’s got a great interview up with Dr. David Stone of MIT, who designs and build Web-based training systems for companies and entities as diverse as power plants, Orkin pest control technicians and defense contractors. By combining virtual worlds like Second Life, off-the-shelf hardware like the Wiimote and standard PCs, Dr. Stone is developing immersive and realistic training programs that let clients “do” in virtual life what they’ll be doing “on the job” in a safe and risk-free environment.

We’ll be following up on this — particularly given Dr. Stone’s quote about the motion sensing Wiimote: “[the Wiimote is] one of the most significant technology breakthroughs in the history of computer science.”

Read the full interview/article on Wired here.

Three Udine (Italy) University researchers have melded GPS, PDAs, an accelerometer and a 3D animated personal trainer named Evita to create a handheld exercise assistant. Dubbed MOPET for Mobile Personal Exercise Trainer, the device uses 3D graphics acceleration capabilities now available on PDAs to provide users with both navigation and training support in a handheld device.

Evita, the device’s 3D animated trainer adapts fitness exercises to user’s condition and demonstrates how to correctly perform exercises using 3D animation

GPS support is used to track user positions against map references. The device provides location-aware audio and map-based navigation instructions to allow users to follow the correct path in the fitness trail.

The device also provides audio and visual feedback of user’s speed and heart rate to help users maintain intensity during their exercise sessions. Researchers plan to add a pulsoximeter as well as a function to generate and update fitness plans according to users’ goals.

To view a demonstration video of this technology, follow this link for a Windows Media Player video narrated in Italian.

A Paper on the project may be viewed here (PDF format).

Udine University researchers linked an accelerometer to video games in an effort to motivate users to exercise. They created two copycat game designs—resembling Breakout and Defender—and tied them to systems that require “exercise”—side-to-side movement in one and deep knee bends for another—to move objects around on the screen.

Both games rely on a heart rate monitor (with an integrated 3D accelerometer) and a pulse oximeter (measuring blood oxygen levels) to monitor user condition.

To view a demonstration video on the use of the Breakout system, use the following link: http://hcilab.uniud.it/demos-videos/item13.html. A paper on this project may be found at: http://hcilab.uniud.it/publications/2006-07.html.

Gyration has announced its ULTRA R4000 Motion-Sensing Remote with Music Display (see posting). Now that the engineering is in place comes the challenge of marketing it to the public.

According to Gyration’s Greg Smith (VP of Marketing and OEM Sales Worldwide), it took one year actually to develop the new product. “It was about 10 months for a Dell version and two months to create Gyration’s,” Smith says.

Gyration will spread its marketing web wide, trying to get a buzz going amongst the home user community. The R4000 has obvious appeal to several segments, including both the music audience and the PC user who happens to want an all-in-one remote for Web access, selecting music tracks, etc.

Smith says they will pursue both avenues, looking for “any enthusiast of converged digital entertainment in the home.”

The R4000 has a backlit LCD screen provides a nice view of music selections on the remote control itself. This allows the user to do one-click play and volume control from up to 100 feet away. It works with both radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR).

It seems unlikely that they will try to split the market segments as Smith indicates they feel it will get a good reception from both the audiophile and from the more casual web surfer.

“The LCD screen is especially useful for music fans, but the remote can be used for all manner of Media Center content and other streaming media, such as Joost, You Tube and the like,” Smith says.

The viewing area of the LCD is 39mm x 27mm (1.5in x 1.1in, L x W). The pixel dimensions are 160 x 104.

The unit is built with relative motion control. “This is a key feature for user comfort, as it allows the users to hold their hand in the most comfortable position (e.g. lying on the couch) and then just press the button to control the cursor in that position,” Smith says, adding that an absolute sensor would require the user to hold up their arm and point in a specific orientation. “That would be very uncomfortable and tiresome for long-term use,” he points out.

The gyro in the R4000 is mechanical. It has an internal beam that vibrates at 1.8 kHz. The amplitude of the motion, however, is measured down to 0.6 microns. As such, it is essentially “solid state.” The amount of movement is equivalent to the movement in a silicon chip, Smith notes.

The R4000, which is being manufactured for Gyration in China, will be targeted at the Christmas computer buying season, Smith says. It will not be bundled with music or games. The only bundle they plan for this Fall is the announced bundle with a compact wireless keyboard.

The company has one controller on the market without a LCD. “And,” Smith says, “We have a roadmap with some exciting integrated controllers.”

Look for the R4000 to be promoted strongly at point of sale locations, in newspaper circulars and over the Web.

At the moment they are seeking retail outlets to handle the R4000. Smith says they can not say, at this time, which retailers will handle the controller but that they are looking to confirm stores that will sell it.

We welcome your feedback and comments at any time.

Publisher: Danny Briere

Editor: Pat Hurley

About the site

The Motion Applications Report is the first resource to provide news and strategic analysis on the growing field of motion-controlled and motion-sensing applications for the TV, IPTV, Consumer Electronics, PC and Gaming industries. We track the entire ecosystem from components and devices, through middleware and on to end-user applications.

The Motion Applications Report tracks the current developments in, and examines emerging uses of, motion control and sensing applications, with an eye towards their impact on a range of industries.

Understanding Motion Applications

Motion applications move beyond the traditional remote control, keypad and even the mouse and keyboard by using natural motions and gestures as a user interface (UI) element. Motion-enabled applications incorporate motion sensors (gyroscopic/inertial or optical) embedded within a device (such as a cell phone) or as part of a peripheral controller (for example, in a gaming console, TV or set top box).

While some devices have used elements of motion control (joysticks, trackballs, mice), our focus is on the next generation of devices that take motion control beyond the two dimensional and incorporate movements on multiple axes.

Additionally, our focus is on consumer and end-user applications for motion control and sensing. While motion applications technologies are often used as a part of industrial control systems, the Motion Applications Report targets the intersection of these technologies with existing and emerging categories of entertainment, computing, and consumer electronics devices.

Using motion to control applications is one in which a user is able to manipulate applications on a PC or other display using six-axes of motion. Move a device to the left, a cursor on screen moves left. Swing it, see swinging motion on the TV. Motion-enabled devices often also know who is holding the device, driving user-specific configuration and transactions – think about the degree of customization you can build into a product or service when the control device can identify the user without any overt action on their part.

The latest from Gyration, Inc. allows audiophiles and gamers to switch their music tracks from across the room or from another room without having to turn on your PC monitor or TV. The ULTRA R40000 Motion-Sensing Remote with Music Display has a backlit LCD screen provides a clear view of music selections right on the remote and allows one-click play and volume control from up to 100 feet away.
The remote works with both radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR). Since the remote works with RF, the user can select and control tracks even when not in the same room as the TV/PC setup.
The ULTRA R4000 is designed to replace existing TV, cable, A/V and Media Center remotes and do away with the need for a mouse.
The product will be sold direct to the public at retail stores. Gyration is aiming to have the ULTRA R4000 out for the big Fall-Christmas buying rush. To cover the standard user market, the ULTRA R4000 will also be available bundled with a wireless portable keyboard.
Gyroscopic Motion-Sensing technology lets the user make natural hand movements to control the on-screen cursor and all aspects of Windows® Media Center software. It also includes standard menu navigation, an alphanumeric keypad and shortcut buttons.
Its in-air control of the mouse allows access to any streaming video sites or for standard web surfing. For music applications, the R4000’s backlit LCD screen provides music selections right on the remote and allows one-click play and volume control.

The U.K.’s Daily Mail had a piece on Friday about a pair of Australian scientists who have developed (and are seeking to commercialize) an optical gesture recognition system for TV control.  The researchers, from the University of Wollongong have developed a controller containing a digital video camera which can recognize 7 different gestures to control the TV (or other devices) using simple hand movements (like a “thumbs up” gesture to move up a channel).

Given the intricacies of most CE devices today, we don’t really see this scaling to completely replace a traditional remote control (or another pointing device like Hillcrest’s loop or one of its competitors), but the ability to interact with your TV without any device is appealing. At the very least it adds yet another wrinkle to the absolute vs. relative, optical vs. accelerometer motion sensing debates undeway within the industry.  And for very simple “on/off” or change channel/volume commands , we think this could be a very interesting complement to handheld-remote based systems.

You can read the article here.

The EETimes published a piece yesterday about iSuppli’s recent study on home networking and its drivers.  The biggest takeaway we took from this was the absolutely huge number of respondents who were looking for a connection between their digital TV and the Internet — 61% of respondents found this to be feature that they agreed or agreed strongly that they needed.

Good news for Internet (as opposed to IP) TV providers, and to home networking gear manufacturers, but from our perspective adding the almost limitless amount of entertainment content on the Web to a TV screen won’t be worth the effort without an effortless mechanism for  actually getting that content displayed. Search, aggregation and metadata all play a big part here — but the actual interface with the Web on the TV is just as big an issue.

So this is where we think motion control comes into play — bringing the mouse to the TV. Yesterday’s announcement of the Logitech Freespace Navigation mouse is a great example here (for PCs bringing the Internet to the TV), the Wiimote is another (as more Wii content becomes available online). Where these technologies will pop up next on the TV is one of our obsessions around here — so stay tuned!