Sunday, February 11, 2007

the falcon flock grows

fresh off the line


Walt with the latest hatchlings

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome image! It gives me another idea for a marketing campaign.

video of a row/army of falcons moving in unison. in the background footage of the video game they are moving in unison with. try to capture the timing of the action of the video game with the jerking arms of the falcons. have some funky music playing along with the movement aggressive, thumping, catchy music. hendrix - are you experienced, or something of the like.

then at the end of footage - graphics - THEY'RE ALIVE!!

Ideally these ideas should run on television but,if you guys don't have the budget you should at least start putting some of these up on you tube...homemade video commercials can work too.

Anonymous said...

A You Tube film is a great way to generating more buzz on a reduced budget.

Anonymous said...

Can you send me the one I ordered now!?!? Please!!!

Anonymous said...

Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words. I agree with the previous poster -- ship them badboys!!

Anonymous said...

Hello,
Just wondering, it has been sometime now since you posted your website. I have noticed that there are very few (big title)games supported and that Half-life2 is the only game of real popularity for FPS'ers. Are there any other that are going to be supported. And if so, why not post a list of games in progress so that we (yes there are a few), that do not have Half-Life but do play "other" games might find ours coming online so to speak. I know a really bad pun there. But what the heck.
Thank You for your efforts getting Falcon out the door.
Sincerely,

Anonymous said...

For those of us who can't attend the Game Developers Conference, can you make the presentation that Anderson gives, on incorporating touch into games, available online for viewing? I am interested in hearing what he has to say but can't get to the conference.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

IDEA: You should take the logo for the Game Developer's Conference (it is a hand holding the world) and make it 3D touchable for use during the speaker session you are doing. The theme for the conference is "Take Control"...What better way to do that than with haptic technology? I think the demo/example will help convey the message that incorporating the technology into anything virtual makes the experience and the interaction better.

Anonymous said...

Great news on the FREE drivers for half-life 2.

Now, how do you get that news to EVERY single person who owns that software and convince them that playing it with the Falcon will cahnge the experience enough to spend $239 on the controller????

Anonymous said...

All these PR's are great but it seems to have no effect on the stock price. I hope you guys are out there marketing this product, especially with the Half Life 2 Driver. It would be a shame if you weren't.

About Us said...

re: our GDC presentation for game developers

We do plan to post information from Tom and Bill Anderson's talk at GDC in March once we return from the show.

About Us said...

re: making the GDC logo touchable

Great idea. I'll pass it along to the developers. It may be difficult to fit in priority-wise, but they'll be interested in the idea.

About Us said...

re: upcoming games for the Falcon

We plan to create Falcon drivers for a wide variety of blockbuster games. Expect more announcements regarding these games shortly. Thanks for your patience in the meantime.

Also, I wanted to make it clear that we have no plans to focus specifically on the FPS (first-person shooter) genre. Although our version of Half-Life 2 (an FPS) has gotten a lot of acclaim, the FPS genre is only one of many game-types we plan to make "touchable". We anticipate that the Falcon will be used to play sports games, adventure games, puzzle-solving games, driving games, RTS games, and much more.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you will make the Half-Life2 drivers available for download. I look forward to going to the Novint website and seeing a long list of Falcon drivers for games/applications.

Anonymous said...

UPDATE THE SCREENSHOTS!!!

I want to see some full size screenshots of the Feelin'It games and others. That shouldn't be too hard to pull off. COME ON!!

Anonymous said...

Obvious marketing potential..

JAY-Z LYRICS

"Feelin It"

[Chorus:]
I'm feelin it fill the glass to the top with Moet
Feelin it feel the Lex pushin up on the set
I'm feelin it through the high that you get from the lie
Feelin it if you feel it raise your l in the sky

[Verse 1:]

I keep it realer than most I know your feelin it
Cristal on ice I like to toast I keep on spillin it
Bone crushers I keep real close I got the skill for this.....

About Us said...

Re: NMB screenshots

We mentioned previously that we plan to update the website with screenshots around the time of the Game Developers Conference, where we plan to unveil Newton's Monkey Business more formally.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget to upload pics from the conference this week!!!

Anonymous said...

Is there any concern at Novint that with Playstation 3s SIXAXIS controller that you will have to move quickly from a 3-dof controller to a 6-dof controller sooner than you originally anticipated? Won't that add significant cost to the Falcon? How soon do you think you would need to do that? How do you think the SIXAXIS compares to the current 3-dof version of the Falcon?

About Us said...

re: SIXAXIS and 6-DOF

A multi-degree of freedom device with no force feedback, whether one like the Wii remote or the Playstation SIXAXIS controller, has significant deficiencies compared to the Falcon. First, force feedback lets you do many things that are not possible with a non-force feedback device, such as feel the weight of a ball as it is thrown (which is critical to throwing it correctly, if you want to throw like in real life).

Second, any non-mechanical tracker does not have anywhere near the precision that the Falcon has. For example, the majority of Wii interactions are event-based rather than direct motion-tracking based. A swing of a tennis racket is an event, when you flick your wrist. It doesn't matter if you swing high or low or with a big swing or tiny flick of your wrist -- you just swing and the player swings as well. It is not all that much different than a button push inside the code. With the Falcon, in contrast, in our table tennis game, you are actually swinging the paddle, and the computer maintains precise relative positions of the ball and the paddle. The computer is keeping track of the paddle position to sub-millimeter resolution, 1000 times a second.

6-DOF can be very nice in some applications, especially in combination with high fidelity three-dimensional haptics. We have therefore planned for it. A majority of our work over the past 12 years has been with 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) tracking (right-left, up-down, forwards-backwards, roll, pitch, yaw) on a 3D haptic device. Our specifications from the beginning of the Falcon's design have therefore been intended to easily upgrade to 6-DOF tracking.

For example, last month we did a medical project where we we created a medical needle insertion application where the syringe could rotate. It was a 1-month project, including the new tracked handle hardware design. It would be a relatively small cost to design and implement a full rotation tracking handle that would just plug into the Falcon as it currently is, and we can provide it to consumers without significant increases in system price. We have not released definite plans on the timing to create a 6-DOF controller right now, but it is something we can do quickly and inexpensively when the time is right. Right now, there are many powerful types of gameplay that we can do that are not possible with any other controller, including the Wii-mote or 6-axis controllers, and we are focusing on those types of games and gameplay right now.

The best way to make the point is to try the Falcon then try any other controller. It is admittedly difficult to explain without a demo.

About Us said...

re: GDC Conference

GDC (Game Developers Conference) begins tomorrow in San Francisco. Our booth is in its final stages of preparation, and almost all of our team has arrived. Please keep a lookout for Novint news generating from the show this week!

Anonymous said...

Great news on the institutional financing! That is a huge development! Good luck with the show.

About Us said...

re: institutional funding

Thank you very much. If you haven't read about our recent fundraising efforts, you can find the story at http://www.novint.com/9M%20Funding%20Release.htm

Anonymous said...

New full sized screen shots for NMB look great! Fish Sticker and Duck Launch should be awesome! I can't wait to try them all!!!

Anonymous said...

Why does the falcon not have any buttons?

Your plaing a FPS you move/strafe/jump with you left hand and shoot/alt shoot with the right.

How can this replace a clicking device without the ability to click?

Anonymous said...

Should we expect more announcements from GDC??

Anonymous said...

Wow! Congratulations on your recent funding. It is great to see this technology finally hitting the mainstream. I hope everything went well at the GDC. Like other people have said, you need a lot more than just HL2. Maybe a patch for World of Warcraft or a similar popular franchise would garner some more support. I also heard about the Cell Factor demo having support, I can't wait to try that out. Great job Novint, I wish you the best of luck.

About Us said...

re: screenshots for NMB

Thanks! For anyone interested, we've posted screenshots for each minigame in our Newton's Monkey Business game bundle (included with each Novint Falcon order). You can find these images, along with brief descriptions of each game, at www.novint.com/NMB.htm

About Us said...

re: Falcon buttons

Actually, the Falcon does have buttons. In fact, the round grip you see in our photographs has a total of 4 buttons.

The Falcon was designed with a quick-disconnect capability so that grips can be swapped out with ease. We plan to produce a variety of different grips, all of which will have buttons or triggers arranged in different configurations (depending on the game and/or user preference).

About Us said...

re: GDC news

Because our booth tends to attract significant traffic (media included), it is common to see stories or blog entries about the Falcon appearing in publications during or shortly after a show like GDC. If you're interested, keep an eye out for these, or do a few searches online.

About Us said...

re: GDC, going into the final day

We've had an extremely successful show so far. Overall, the new Falcons have performed wonderfully during our many, many demonstrations this week, and our software has shown beautifully. The response to our technology, as usual, has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

Thank you to everyone who has shown their support during GDC. Next stop... launch.

Anonymous said...

Are you guys doing this right? Why aren't you giving the controllers away (or at least for a lot cheaper - like $75) and making money on the games and licensing instead? Once everyone has the controllers they will buy the games. Instead you are throwing in the games for free. Don't other companies eat losses on the consoles and make profits on the games?

Anonymous said...

Game consoles:
I would prefer to use the Falcon with a game console rather than PC. I've just recently read in a review of the Falcon that this is a possibilty in the near future. Could you clarify this report with a reasonable time table of this occurring. TIA

About Us said...

re: strategy

Unlike the console companies, Novint is a small firm and can’t afford the kinds of loss leaders that a Microsoft or Sony can. We have done everything we can to make our high-fidelity hardware affordable (especially given the cost of comparable commercial devices, which cost thousands of dollars). As our installed base grows, we hope to continue to lower the price. This is a pattern followed by most consumer electronics devices.

About Us said...

re: console integration (for TIA)

We do intend to get the Falcon working on consoles, but can't give any estimate of the time frame right now. As soon as we can, we'll let you know.

Lynn Marentette said...

I ordered a Novint Falcon when I played with the demo in Charlotte, NC.

It would be a great device for children who are visually impaired. Is it possible to use TWO Falcons at once?

Anonymous said...

How are preorder sales going?

About Us said...

re: Lynn Marentette

It is absolutely possible to use more than one Falcon in supported games. We plan to offer a variety of games and applications for the Falcon that allow dual-use.

Not only could this have great implications for gaming (imagine actually feeling yourself wielding two swords in a fantasy game, two drumsticks in a music game, or dealing from a virtual deck of cards, just for starters), but this can yield significant educational benefits as well.

Students could practice complex, two-handed procedures realistically, becoming proficient before ever attempting these procedures in real life. We've already seen benefits like these at the university level with our Virtual Reality Dental Training System, as well as our epidural injection simulator.

However, the benefits of high-fidelity 3D touch can extend all the way down to children's education as well. I saw from your profile that you advocate Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL involves, among other things, designing curriculum in a way that accomodates differences in learning styles. The Falcon could shine here as well. Imagine being able to conduct sophisticated virtual science experiments, re-enact historical events and lifestyles, or add excitement to the use of manipulatives to learn math -- all using the sense of touch. The possibilities are exciting.

About Us said...

re: pre-order sales

There has been a lot of interest both from people who have pre-ordered a Falcon, and those who have told us they intend to.

Anonymous said...

I read on this blog site (link below) that the Falcon is going to be displayed in Best Buy stores? Is this accruate?

http://news.firingsquad.com/matrix/blog.asp/62619/310/The_Novint_Falcon:_3D_Tactile-feedback_Input

About Us said...

re: comment on blog site

The comment was incorrect, but while we haven’t made any formal announcements yet, we expect to be in the retail channel shortly after launch.

Lynn Marentette said...

I can't wait until my Novint Falcon arrives.

I work with a teacher who specializes in teaching students who are visually impaired, and she has some ideas about how it could work for her students. If she orders one, I will see what we can do with two of them working together.

Thanks for the information.