Beyond the haptics, the MX-5000 is a fairly standard high-end universal remote, intended for system builders to pair with similarly high-end home media systems—not your 40-inch HDTV. This explains the unorthodox button choice and inclusion of Wi-Fi, which the remote uses to display all manner of information broadcast from your receiver. It also explains the price price—although there's no official figure, Crunchgear's inquiry was answered with an ominous "below $1500."

Even if most people could never dreaming of needing one of these, the concept is still exciting: having to looks at a remote every time you use it feels like a step back, so if URC can clear that hurdle, more power to them. [Crunchgear]

The fingerprint ID also, of course, can theoretically act as a security device so that only you can activate your phone. There's also haptic (physical) feedback when you're hitting things, as well as using the touchscreen as an RFID reader. None of the three are really mindblowing in themselves, on the surface, but if implemented intelligently might make for a big step forward in the iPhone product line. [Macrumors via Boy Genius]

The new soft keyboard improvement, called TouchSense, is designed to mimic both the feel and sound of a real, mechanical keyboard, to enable easier transitioning between keys. Immersive Messaging, on the other hand, is a cornball idea that's essentially text messaging gussied up with haptic feedback: You can send a heart design to your significant other, and he or she can feel it "beating," which kind of sounds more scary than romantic to me. They dub such icons "Hapticons." Even further, they announced "Twiddling," which is essentially a separate app in which two people can "feel" each other through haptic feedback on their iPhones. Now you see what I mean about that corny romantic nonsense.

Both TouchSense and Immersive Messaging were demonstrated on the iPhone, and the Immersion rep dodged questions about possible other platforms (*cough* WebOS *cough*) and even Immersion's immediate plans for their creations. We could see Immersive Messaging showing up as an irritating app, a theory the Immersion rep wouldn't deny. [All Things D]

The video below explains the concept in depth, but here's the gist: A hard acrylic chamber, perforated with fixed button shapes, is surrounded by latex on both sides. A pneumatic pump pressurizes or depressurizes the central chamber, either depressing or lifting the areas above the button holes. Display duties are carried out through rear projection, and (multi!)touch tracking is dealt with via finger-tracking cameras.

The effect is seamless. It's still in experimental stages, but no single part of this technology is especially novel or expensive, so it's semi-plausible that we could see something like this make it to market in the near future. Unfortunately, the bulky nature of this particular system precludes use in portable products, but it would work just fine in larger ones, like the in-dash computer seen in the video.

Size will inevitably come down, power needs will be addressed, and such a screen's uses will widen. This generation may one day be asked, "Dad, was there really a time when touchscreens and buttons didn't peacefully coexist? Really?" They'll have to reluctantly answer, "Yes, son," eyes turned toward the ground, "but would that we forget..." [Tech Review]

Philips senior scientist Paul Lemmens and a team of researchers have devised a jacket—but sorry dudes, no matching pants—that augments your emotions with gentle nudges, squeezes and taps. The point? To cause "a shiver to go up the viewer's spine and creating the feeling of tension in the limbs," Lemmens told IEEE Spectrum, on the eve of the World Haptics Conference where he's presenting the jacket.

Lemmens says that during a Bruce Lee fight scene, the jacket can pulse with the gu-goong gu-goong gu-goong of an elevated heartbeat. (All good, until you remember that Bruce Lee's heart rate never went above 42 beats per minute his whole life.)

The jacket's versatile fondling techniques come from 64 actuators, clustered in groups of four along different parts of the torso and arms—eight in each sleeve, for instance. They are low-powered enough to be run on two AA batteries for an hour, but hopefully they'll make room for more batteries, since the average movie is over 2 hours, including trailers. The signals to pinch your arm, tighten your chest, or sooth your back would come from the film itself, kinda like how those D-Box motion chairs follow pre-determined cues that are synced with the action on the screen.

I'm willing to buy into the argument that a little more physical interaction would heighten my emotional appreciation of a movie, but I just can't help feeling it's the premise of a corny but terrifying episode of The Outer Limits? [IEEE Spectrum]

Gaming blog Joystiq, speaking with Novint CEO Tom Anderson, reports that the haptics gaming device will be on consoles by the end of 2009 if he has anything to do with it. While a far cry from "the Novint Falcon haptics gaming device is definitely coming to consoles this winter," the declaration had moxie, dammit, and that's good enough for me.

The holdup is, unsurprisingly, the console manufacturers (Wild guess: Likely just MS and Sony), who were wary of supporting the device until a good number of developers embraced the technology. From Anderson's viewpoint, that support has materialized, somewhere, and companies are now "piling on" the Falcon.

So, a console version is more likely now than it was in September, but it's still a ways from being a done deal.

Update@7:36 a.m.: Kotaku has some Novint Falcon hands-on impressions from CES up today. Synopsis? Feels good after a short introduction, but the force feedback from gunfire is disorienting, to say the least. [Joystiq]

Teases for hologram technology are commonplace nowadays, but it is usually taken for granted that the projected images will provide no haptic feedback. Though the researchers have said little about integration with other projection systems, the possibility of a tactile hologram now doesn't seem totally out of the question. There's a major catch, though: the virtual objects won't provide much resistance or seem very "hard," because at high enough levels the aurally imperceptible ultrasound will destroy your eardrums. Even considering the limitations, my hope remains: that we may soon be able to (very delicately) slap people through a webcam. [BBC]

Sure, Immersion uses an alter ego, "Internet Services, LLC," as an alias for when it licenses the rights to its "teledildonic gaming devices" patent to pleasure seekers of the flesh variety, but it's still the same tech at heart. Next up: A DIY project that turns the Wii Fit balance board into a customized Tantric sit-and-spin BMI calculator. Who's with me? [Boing Boing Gadgets]

According to Palluxo.com, the two companies have already met, with a follow up meeting planned for next week to discuss licensing terms of Immersion's haptic technology. The iPhone would likely receive force feedback via inbuilt sensors, meaning a vibration of sorts would be output at the touch of on screen buttons, which would make the absence of a physical QWERTY that much more bearable. We'd probably give our right bionic arm (if we had one) for such haptic feedback on the iPhone, so we're hoping these rumorings are as solid as well formed stool. Until we hear something concrete, we'll keep you entertained with poo jokes. (See above.) [Palluxo]

The maglev haptic control consists of two bowl shape objects, powered by electromagnets. Inside these bowls, a joystick floats around with a tracking sensor that relays its position back to a Linux Fedora-powered computer. The technology is precise to 2 microns and produces 40 newtons of force. One specific demo was the "physics playpen," where a variety of 3d shapes were displayed on screen and users could interact with them using the joysticks; moving the shapes back and forth between each hand, getting feedback of the collision, and a feel for the volume and weight of the objects.

Ultimately, the goal for this maglev haptic technology would be to have it implemented in a medical setting (microsurgery), military use (drone control), or even data visualzation (minority report, perhaps?). Just don't expect it anytime soon, as the electromagnets that power this thing cost tens of thousands of dollars alone. More pics are available over at [Gadget Lab].

In the media player, you get FF/RW and play/pause controls; in the calculator, you get plus, minus, subtract and divide buttons. The soul patch (my name) even vibrates when you click it, thanks to the same Immersion tech found in Playstation and Wii rumble controllers. Congrats to Samsung in making a touch UI that overcomes some of the shortcomings of touchscreen controls in a nice looking package.

If you don't remember, the Falcon is a 3D joystick that actually lets you "feel" textures and surfaces by moving the ball around. We've been hearing about it for years now (I tried it at the last E3), but it's good to know that this thing is definitely solid and shipping, and not vapor. We never doubted ya, Novint. – Jason Chen

Thanks Tristan!

Product Page [Novint]

"If the unit commander has the information about which team members are walking, running, standing, prone, kneeling, and/or firing weapons, he will be able to make well informed critical decisions based on a significantly better understanding of the situation at any given time. Even with the lack of physiological monitoring, these data could indicate potential causalities (e.g., prone, no movement, not firing). Additionally, direction of enemy, ammunition depletion, and severity of enemy engagements could be ascertained."

They were also thinking about attaching something to a soldier's tongue which is even grosser. A fascinating work-around for information overload. – John Biggs

Set Cammos to Vibrate [DefenseTech]

Our second favorite class from when we were in grad school at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program was taught by game designer Frank Lantz of area/code. The best project—certainly the most copyright infringing one—to come out of his Big Games class this past semester might just be the Nintendo Amusement Park, "a real life obstacle course which a player jumps through using a power assist harness."

The current set-up is as basic as basic can be: it uses bungee cords, with the player attached to a fixed point on the ceiling. If they manage to get funding, the group behind the project will build a 2-axis ceiling track with a haptic winch, which "would be responsible for determining where the player wanted to go in 3D space and delivering them there safely." Watch the lovingly-crafted commercial (in Japanese, with English subtitles!) on the site to get an idea of what they're trying to do, and how much fun it could be; we're looking forward to trying it out ourselves sometime soon. Hopefully they get their wish and a big company pays them to develop the idea further to make a fun booth for E3 2007.

(Extra bonus item, which some of you may have seen before: our favorite project from 2004's Big Games class (a.k.a. the one we couldn't get into because NYU's registration software screwed us over), was PacManhattan, an urban game that used the streets of Manhattan to recreate the PacMan grid. )

Nintendo Amusement Park [via teendrama]