Near-term and futuristic use of haptics will be experienced across a wide range of applications

SAN JOSE, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — February 21, 2014 — Immersion Corporation (Nasdaq: IMMR), the leading developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, will be unveiling new demonstrations at Mobile World Congress designed to show how tactile technology will enhance user experience in next-generation mobile and wearable devices. The demos highlight applications of haptics in user-created video, tactile ads and entertainment, wearables, mobile user interfaces and gaming. The company will showcase its technology at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2014, February 24 – 27 in Barcelona. Immersion will be located at App Planet Hall, Stand 8.1G41.

“Mobile World Congress is a great opportunity for us to pull back the curtain and share new technologies we’re investing in to offer haptics more broadly to the mobile ecosystem, including OEMs, advertisers, developers, content owners and publishers,” explains Dennis Sheehan, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Immersion. “Our experiential demonstrations use technologies that will reach consumers over the next 1-3 years; we’re offering visitors an opportunity to experience how haptics will transform mobile video, ads, entertainment and communications into immersive, multi-sensory experiences.”

Tactile Effects in User-Created Video

Tactile effects offer consumers a new way to customize and enhance mobile videos. With tactile effects, users can engage the sense of touch to exaggerate, emphasize and intensify physical feats, incorporate personal commentary and express emotions in personal videos. Imagine a user adding a haptic heartbeat to a video of a new puppy, or the realistic sensation of rolling up a ramp to a skateboard video. With new Immersion technology, tactile effects can be added into user captured video and shared with others, who can then feel the experience on their own device.

In addition to on-device editing demonstrations, Mobile World Congress visitors will be able to preview Immersion’s research and development efforts in sensor-based tactile technology. With sensor-based haptics, data captured from gyros and accelerometers affixed to athletes are translated into haptic tracks, which are then embedded into mobile video. The unprecedented sense of realism offered by haptics captured by sensor data allows viewers to feel the pavement underneath a skateboarder, the rev of the engine in motocross or the impact of a crash from a BMX rider.

Tactile Ads and Entertainment

User research has shown that incorporating tactile effects into mobile ads and entertainment results in increased key performance indicators, including brand perception, intent to purchase and user engagement. Additionally, tactile ads and entertainment have been shown to increase long-term recall of content, while providing an opportunity for advertisers and content owners to direct attention and alter media experience. At Mobile World Congress, Immersion will be demonstrate the latest examples of tactile ads and entertainment, and will preview tools the company is developing for advertisers, publishers and agencies to incorporate tactile effects into mobile content.

Wearables

Tactile feedback provides personal, private and discreet communication between a wearable device and its user. By using Immersion technology, OEMs can create a unique language of communication, based on distinct tactile effects, to provide rich meaningful information to users. Demonstrations will let visitors feel a wide range of use cases for tactile communications in wearables including rich alerts and notifications, smart home controls, health and fitness applications, and gaming.

Mobile UX and Gaming

Immersion’s tactile technology provides OEMs and game developers the opportunity to create a user experience that is branded and distinct, as well as more intuitive. Seemingly simple tactile enhancements go a long way to reduce user frustration and create a rich, delightful mobile user experience. From chat and messaging applications to camera and video capture, text entry, utilities, and connectivity, Immersion will be demonstrating novel ways that tactile effects can enhance mobile UX. Also on display will be third-party applications using Immersion’s Haptic SDK for Android game developers. The Haptic SDK offers tools and effect libraries that make it easy to incorporate tactile effects into Android games. To date, it has been used to enhance thousands of Android games which, on aggregate, have been downloaded over 80 million times.

About Immersion ( www.immersion.com)

Founded in 1993, Immersion (NASDAQ: IMMR) is the leading innovator in haptic technology; the company's touch feedback solutions deliver a more compelling sense of the digital world. Using Immersion's high-fidelity haptic systems, partners can transform user experiences with unique and customizable touch feedback effects; excite the senses in games, videos and music; restore "mechanical" feel by providing intuitive and unmistakable confirmation; improve safety by overcoming distractions while driving or performing a medical procedure; and expand usability when audio and visual feedback are ineffective. Immersion's TouchSense technology provides haptics in mobile phone, automotive, gaming, medical and consumer electronics products from world-class companies. With over 1,400 issued or pending patents in the U.S. and other countries, Immersion helps bring the digital universe to life. Hear what we have to say at blog.immersion.com.