Immersion: PSP, DS can get rumble

Immersion, known for rumble technology, went in-depth about business strategies, but our eyebrows were raised when the company brought up a promising concept. Immersion is not only working with Nokia, Samsung, and LG to bring the VibeTonz technology to mobile phones and PDAs, but is also considering to bring handheld gaming devices some rumble love.

Immersion CEO Victor Viegas told Game Daily in a lengthy interview:

The effects and strength you can get with a small motor is really amazing… you really feel the staccato of a machine gun, you really feel when you’re pressing on a piece of glass on a touch screen that you’re pressing a low profile button… This would translate quite easily to the Nintendo DS, PSP or almost any mobile device.

Sony has signed a deal with Immersion before, with Viegas promising technical proposals for PlayStation products, so it’s likely to see Sony PSP with rumble. Nintendo, on the other hand, always used its own ideas like the Wii Remote’s rumble function.

“We have not yet formally taken a position on whether it’s infringing or not infringing any of our IP,” said Viegas. About future plans, he continued, “We’ve made it clear that we want to work with them as close as possible and we’ve shown them quite a few new technologies that we think make their products a little bit better.”

Immersion, known for rumble technology, went in-depth about business strategies, but our eyebrows were raised when the company brought up a promising concept. Immersion is not only working with Nokia, Samsung, and LG to bring the VibeTonz technology to mobile phones and PDAs, but is also considering to bring handheld gaming devices some rumble love.

Immersion CEO Victor Viegas told Game Daily in a lengthy interview:

The effects and strength you can get with a small motor is really amazing… you really feel the staccato of a machine gun, you really feel when you’re pressing on a piece of glass on a touch screen that you’re pressing a low profile button… This would translate quite easily to the Nintendo DS, PSP or almost any mobile device.

Sony has signed a deal with Immersion before, with Viegas promising technical proposals for PlayStation products, so it’s likely to see Sony PSP with rumble. Nintendo, on the other hand, always used its own ideas like the Wii Remote’s rumble function.

“We have not yet formally taken a position on whether it’s infringing or not infringing any of our IP,” said Viegas. About future plans, he continued, “We’ve made it clear that we want to work with them as close as possible and we’ve shown them quite a few new technologies that we think make their products a little bit better.”