IMMERSION TECHNOLOGY (IMMR)

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Immersion TouchSense(R) Components Available for Adding Tactile Feedback to the Touchscreen Interface
Monday July 24, 8:30 am ET
Make Onscreen Buttons Feel Real for a More Familiar, Engaging, Satisfying User Experience

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 24, 2006--Immersion Corporation (Nasdaq:IMMR - News), a leading developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, is now shipping its TouchSense® System consisting of actuators, control boards, and software development kit (SDK). The TouchSense System supplies tactile feedback for a touchscreen user interface, making on-screen buttons feel like they press and release. With the TouchSense System, traditionally passive touch interfaces "come alive" to provide a greater connection with the user. Benefits can include increased efficiency, understanding, and user satisfaction for a broad range of consumer, commercial, industrial, and medical applications.

Source: Immersion Corporation

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"It is important that device manufacturers offer the maximum possible amount of sensory feedback for their input devices, as users often can't confirm their input selection and become frustrated," says Jack Gold, President of J. Gold Associates. "In many cases existing touch displays offer only audio feedback which is useless in the often noisy environments in which touchscreens are used. Tactile feedback will add a substantially improved user experience with more surety of confirming each touch point selection regardless of the surrounding environment."

Benefits for Users and Businesses

The TouchSense System can help make touchscreens a more acceptable choice where the lack of tactile feedback has been a barrier to their adoption. In these cases, TouchSense feedback can be used to create the desired mechanical feel while bringing the flexibility of configurable software interfaces.

Synchronizing touch feedback with sound and graphics can supply a fresh new dimension to current touchscreen systems. The heightened interactivity gives users a greater sense of control and emulates the tactile qualities they like about mechanical controls, but that have been missing in purely digital systems. Further, the latency problem, where users are left wondering if their selection was accepted by the system, can be solved with fast, affirming tactile responses.

"Our ready-to-integrate TouchSense System delivers user benefits that can translate into business benefits," states Michael D. Levin, Immersion vice president and general manager, Touch Interface Products. "These include unmistakable confirmation that can lead to faster and more accurate transactions, improved interactivity that can create a more engaging and friendlier user experience, and powerful differentiation that reflects a quality brand. TouchSense tactile feedback may also improve user accuracy and speed and increase confidence in performing tasks, especially in distracting environments, such as vehicles and manufacturing and medical environments."

Immersion first implemented its TouchSense force feedback technology in 1996 in gaming system peripherals from Logitech and others. It has since been incorporated into numerous computer and video console systems, including the Microsoft Sidewinder products and Xbox System; medical training systems used by hospitals and medical schools worldwide; interior controls in cars from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen; and in mobile phones from Samsung. TouchSense technology for touchscreens is Immersion's latest innovation.

How TouchSense Feedback Works

When the user touches the screen, a signal is sent to the touchscreen controller, which sends the precise location where contact was made to the host application. The application commands the TouchSense control board to play a pre-defined tactile effect through the actuators. TouchSense effects vary in frequency, magnitude, duration, and waveshape, resulting in a wide range of clearly distinguishable and intuitive cues that can guide users, including those with visual or hearing disabilities.

System Components

Patented, proprietary TouchSense components can be used with most touchscreen sensing technologies. The components are RoHS-compliant and include:
# Actuators

TouchSense A100 and A300 actuators for 5- to 23-inch touchscreens are designed to provide high acceleration with very small displacements. Immersion's Integration Guide outlines several mounting configurations to accommodate a range of touchscreen packaging requirements.
# Control boards

TouchSense serial or USB control boards contain a highly integrated microprocessor and power amplifier. The controllers' proprietary algorithms drive the actuators to produce a wide variety of touch effects stored in a preloaded library. Custom effects may also be downloaded. An optional USB-hub supplies a convenient way to connect up to three additional components, such as the touchscreen controller, card scanner, or other devices.
# Software Development Kit

The TouchSense SDK enables integrators to program tactile effects into touchscreen applications. Immersion provides options to help make programming fast and easy including a Windows ActiveX control, a cross-platform API in source code form, and support for custom interfaces. The SDK allows designers to focus on choosing the best tactile effect for the application rather than on the mechanics of programming.

Immersion offers an integration kit, including TouchSense components and detailed guidelines, to support efficient integration into production-ready designs. A touch monitor demonstration unit with sample applications allows out-of-the-box evaluations of the TouchSense System.

For more information, visit www.immersion.com/touchscreen or contact Immersion at [e-mail].

About Immersion (www.immersion.com)

Founded in 1993, Immersion Corporation is a recognized leader in developing, licensing, and marketing digital touch technology and products. Using Immersion's advanced touch feedback technology, electronic user interfaces can be made more productive, compelling, entertaining, or safer. Immersion's technology is deployed across automotive, entertainment, industrial controls, medical training, mobility, and three-dimensional simulation markets. Immersion's patent portfolio includes over 600 issued or pending patents in the U.S. and other countries.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of Immersion Corporation (the "Company") and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

All statements, other than the statements of historical fact, are statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements, including any projections of earnings, revenues, or other financial matters; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning the benefits of TouchSense technology for consumers, operators, manufacturers, and suppliers of touchscreens, or consumer and market acceptance of tactile feedback products in general; proposed products or services; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; statements of belief; and any statement or assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Immersion's actual results might differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with Immersion's business which include, but are not limited to, delay in or failure to achieve commercial demand for Immersion's products or a delay in or failure to achieve the acceptance of force feedback as a critical user experience.

For a more detailed discussion of these factors, and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results to vary materially, interested parties should review the risk factors listed in the Company's most current Form 10-Q, which is on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this press release reflect the Company's beliefs and predictions as of the date of this release. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of financial, business, or any other developments occurring after the date of this release.

Immersion, the Immersion logo, and TouchSense are trademarks of Immersion Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Contact:

A&R Partners
Becki Fowler, 650-762-2865
[e-mail]

Source: Immersion Corporation