Mouse lets users feel stuff on a site A Fremont, CA-based company called Logitech has introduced a computer mouse that allows users to “feel” the computer screen.
When users move the mouse over hot links, icons, pull-down menus and other graphics, they experience different ridges, bumps and grooves. “It feels like you’re bumping over something so it helps to navigate,” says Julie Goebel, Logitech’s senior product manager for mice and trackballs.
Right now the cutting-edge technology is being used mostly by gamers but it holds out promise for marketers that display their wares online.
“The applications for e-commerce are pretty profound. We’re adding back some of the physicality to the buying experience that’s lost online,” says Bruce Schena, chief technical officer for Immersion Corp., San Jose, CA, which developed the TouchSense technology that Logitech has licensed.
Schena says that a site selling a DVD player, for example, could let users get the feel of the push buttons and the loading drawer opening and closing. A car company could simulate the tremble of a roaring engine.
One important application may be apparel. Already the technology can let the user feel extreme differences in fabric, such as corduroy and silk, and it will eventually become more refined than that. “The subtle difference between cashmere and silk is difficult to convey at this point,” Schena remarks.
Logitech offers two models, the iFeel MouseMan, which lists for $59.95, and the iFeel Mouse, which sells for $39.95. The company says that so far it has sold 250,000 of the mice, which have been in the stores since September.
The first consumer site to incorporate the technology, beginning last September, was Blab.com (formerly eCards.com). The site offers a “Good Vibes” line of online greeting cards that vibrate. (One of Blab.com’s revenue streams is direct marketing through its million-subscriber newsletter.)
Vince Commisso, president and CEO of Toronto-based Blab Media Inc., says of his use of the touchy technology: “It’s all an endeavor to enhance the user experience. If we enhance with visual, audio – and now tactile – you’ve got only two senses left.”
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