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 This offer is good indefinitely – but probably will be withdrawn in the next month or so, Anderson indicates.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.”

When you hold the Falcon’s detachable grip and move your cursor to interact with a virtual object, environment, or character, motors in the device turn on and are updated approximately 1000 times a second, letting you feel texture, shape, weight, dimension, and dynamics.

“It lets you control and interact with games in more realistic way, allowing you to develop real physical skill and muscle memory,” he says.

The unit uses mechanical tracking. “It is much more precise than an accelerometer,” Anderson maintains. “We offer sub-millimeter resolution.

“Unlike the Wii, you can really get into it,” he says, taking a swipe at the popular competitor. The Falcon has three motors, each with an encoder and X, Y and Z position tracking. Occasionally with the Wii, a player will hit at a golf ball but nothing happens. It might take a couple of swings to make contact – or, the contact might happen in the midst of the second or third swing. “With ours, that can not happen,” Anderson says. “It is always accurate.”

Since the Falcon’s trackers are so accurate, the position of the ball and the club always are known precisely. Hit a ping-pong ball, for example, and you can actually feel the slice or spin as the ball comes off the paddle. Take a car into a steep curve and you can feel the force of angular acceleration (or the bumps as you roll the car over).

“It’s in the physics,” Anderson says. “The Falcon gives excellent feedback. That force feedback makes it more intuitive. You feel the momentum of the ball. You actually develop muscle memory, just as you would with a real ball. You can get into a zone … or, out of it, too,” he laughs.

Things seem to be going well at Novint. The offices were a mess due to a shipment that arrived this week (week of July 23, 2007) from China. The mess was the bad news. The good news is that the entire shipment was sold out before it hit the loading platform.

Novint people are fond of comparing the potential impact of their product offerings to the way the introduction of sound changed motion pictures, or graphics made the Internet what it is today.

While the concept of interactive touch in computing is as unimaginable to most people as the idea of television was in the age of radio, we envision a not-too-distant future when it is as commonplace and ubiquitous as a mobile phone or a computer mouse, Anderson says.

Novint says the cost of 3-D touch (haptic) hardware has made the technology impractical for consumer applications, but the Falcon performs comparably to commercial devices that cost thousands of dollars. While it is not cheap, it is designed to sell at a price point that is affordable for consumers.

With its controller out on the market, the company’s short term focus is on the software side of things. The next steps for Novint are to get gobs of software out for the gaming public. Anderson says the company hopes to have as many as 20 new Novint-enabled games on the market in the next couple of months.

Grab a demo of the Falcon here