Novint Technologies
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| Novint Technologies, Inc. | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Industry | Haptics, game controllers |
| Founded | April 1999 (incorporated in New Mexico) |
| Founder | Tom Anderson |
| Headquarters | Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States |
| Notable Personnel | Tom Anderson (CEO until 2011), Walt Aviles (CTO), Shannon Vissman (CEO from 2011) |
| Products | Novint Falcon, Xio (unreleased prototype) |
Novint Technologies was an American haptics company from Albuquerque, New Mexico, best known for the Novint Falcon, a desktop 3D force-feedback controller sold to PC gamers from 2007. The company was founded by Tom Anderson, a former scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, and built its software on haptics technology that Sandia had developed and licensed exclusively to Novint.[1][2]
The Falcon let users move a handle in three dimensions and feel weight, texture and impacts in supported software. It sold at a fraction of the price of professional haptic arms, but the company later wrote that sales "struggled" and never reached critical mass.[3] After years with nominal operations, the public company completed a share exchange with an Israeli orthodontics start-up in August 2023 and renamed itself Dror Ortho-Design, Inc., ending the Novint name.[4] The Falcon has remained in use as a low-cost force-feedback device in virtual reality research and training simulators.
History
Founding and professional work
Novint Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in New Mexico in April 1999 and reincorporated in Delaware on 26 February 2002. The company says it went public in 2001 to commercialize haptics technology licensed from Sandia and to develop a haptic game controller; its stock was quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol NVNT.[5] In April 2000, in connection with its license agreement with Sandia, Novint issued its full authorized series of 4,000 Series A preferred shares.[6]
During its first eight years, most of Novint's revenue came from building professional haptic applications under contract for customers including Aramco, Lockheed Martin, Chrysler, Chevron and Sandia.[5] One purchase order from DaimlerChrysler, dated 13 December 2001, covered a small virtual reality software system for car platform design and evaluation; it was completed for US$63,000.[6] Novint also licensed a Virtual Reality Dental Training System and the VoxelNotepad volumetric data tool from Teneo Computing. Novint described the dental system, developed with the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, as letting students probe, drill and fill a virtual tooth while feeling the difference between enamel, dentin and caries (decay). For Saudi Aramco it extended VoxelNotepad into VoxelNotepad2 for haptic interpretation of oil reservoir data on what it called a desktop virtual reality environment.[6][7]
Developing the Falcon
Novint acquired rights to the base hardware designs for the Falcon from Force Dimension, a Swiss developer of high-end haptic devices, under a development agreement.[7] The industrial design firm Lunar Design turned Force Dimension's concept models into a manufacturable prototype, which was finalized in December 2005.[6] Technology from the project was first shown at the 2006 Game Developers Conference.[7] In August 2006, BusinessWeek reported that the controller was aimed at a price of about US$100 and contrasted it with a US$17,800 Force Dimension controller.[2]
Novint contracted VTech to manufacture the Falcon, placed an initial order for 5,000 units in November 2006 and received the first units in March 2007. It began taking pre-orders in January 2007 and set the consumer launch for 18 June 2007.[6] The launch package was a Limited Edition Novint Falcon bundle with an MSRP of US$239 (US$189 for pre-orders), including the mini-game collection Newton's Monkey Business.[7] The Falcon reached CompUSA stores nationwide in the week of 8 October 2007 in a US$239 bundle that also contained the Feelin' It: Sports Pack.[8] Other retailers included Fry's, Tiger Direct and J&R Music Store, and in the fourth quarter of 2007 Novint opened an online store for the controller and haptics-enabled games.[5]
The Falcon and the Novint/Sandia 3D-Touch Software won a 2007 R&D 100 Award, submitted jointly by Novint, Sandia and industrial partners.[1]
Game partnerships
Novint produced many of its own games and licensed existing titles, which its programmers adapted by hand to add haptic effects. The company said it eventually commercialized more than 45 titles for the Falcon.[5] In 2008 it signed licensing agreements with Electronic Arts and Valve, among others.[9] The Valve deal, announced in June 2008, covered The Orange Box, Counter-Strike: Source, the Half-Life 2 series, Team Fortress 2, Portal and Left 4 Dead.[10] Falcon support went live in Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal in June 2009 so players no longer needed special versions of the games.[11]
Forcetek merger and decline
In April 2011 Novint merged with Force Tek Enterprises, a company owned by Shannon Vissman and Ryan Christoff that had built a full-arm force-feedback game controller. Novint issued 28,571,428 common shares to the two owners.[12] Tom Anderson resigned as CEO on 24 October 2011 and Vissman replaced him. The merged company used about US$3 million of new equity to work on the Xio, a controller that strapped onto the hand and forearm and combined Falcon-style haptics with the Forcetek arm design. Prototypes were built, including work for the US Army, but the Xio was never completed for sale.[5] In December 2011 Novint filed to end its SEC registration.[13]
Anderson, Vissman and two other directors left the board in August 2013. The company then cut costs while selling small numbers of Falcons, accessories and games. In June 2015 it sold five patents and sublicensed five more to an undisclosed technology company for US$750,000 upfront, with a second US$750,000 payment received in July 2016; after fees and payments to Sandia, Novint netted US$699,714. It kept a non-transferable license to continue selling the Falcon and Xio designs.[5]
Shell company and name change
Novint registered with the SEC again in November 2019. In that filing it reported no revenue for 2018 and pointed to the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive and their hand controllers, which it said offered limited haptic feedback compared with the Falcon, as signs of new consumer interest in haptics. It said the force-feedback glove from VRgluv appeared to be directly competitive with the Xio.[5] Its annual report for 2022 described Novint as a shell company with no full-time employees as of 31 March 2023.[3]
On 5 July 2023 Novint agreed to a share exchange with Dror Ortho-Design Ltd., a company incorporated in Israel.[14] On 14 August 2023 the company changed its name to Dror Ortho-Design, Inc., took on Dror's orthodontic aligner business as its sole line of business and moved its executive offices to Jerusalem; the Novint board of directors and certain officers resigned.[4] As of 2026 the company still files with the SEC under the Dror Ortho-Design name.[15]
Products
Novint Falcon
The Falcon is a grounded desktop haptic device: a handle, or "grip", on three robotic arms that are driven by motors in a desktop base.[2] The grip moves left and right, forward and back, and up and down, so the device senses position in three dimensions and pushes back with force; the standard device has three degrees of freedom, and Novint's 2007 comparison listed three more (roll, pitch and yaw) for an enhanced handle.[7] It connects to a PC over USB, and the motors are updated about 1,000 times per second.[5][16] Grips attach through a quick-release interface; consumer grips included a spherical general-purpose grip and a pistol grip.[5]
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| 3D touch workspace | 4" x 4" x 4" |
| Force capabilities | > 2 lb |
| Position resolution | > 400 dpi |
| Handle change time | < 1 second |
| Interface | USB 2.0 |
| Size | 9" x 9" x 9" |
| Weight | 4 lb |
| Power | 30 watts, 100V-240V, 50Hz-60Hz |
In Novint's own 2007 comparison, the Falcon was priced under US$200, against US$2,000 to tens of thousands of dollars for the SensAble Technologies Phantom and usually more than US$10,000 for other high-end haptic devices.[7]
Xio
The Xio was a planned successor that strapped onto the hand and forearm instead of sitting on a desk, meant to fix the Falcon's size, weight and desktop footprint. It never progressed past prototypes.[5]
Reception
In late 2006 BusinessWeek wrote that the Falcon "looks set to revolutionize gaming", a line the company later quoted in its filings.[5] Gizmodo reviewed the Falcon with its pistol grip in September 2008 and gave it a verdict of "Awesome", praising precise aiming and recoil that varied by weapon, while noting a steep learning curve and limited game support.[17]
Novint's later filings gave its own account of the failure: the company sold "thousands" of Falcons, but games were not adapted fast enough, licensing and adapting titles cost too much for a small company, and it never found a large partner to help market the device. It also called itself "much too early" in the consumer haptic controller market.[5][3]
XR work
Haptic feedback in virtual environments was central to Novint from the start, in its contract work on virtual reality systems for car design, dental training and oil reservoir modeling.[6][7] After consumer VR headsets arrived, the Falcon's low price kept it in use for VR haptics experiments. In a 2016 Stanford EE 267 virtual reality course project, students connected a Falcon to a head-mounted display scene built in Unity. They reported that the Falcon needed at least about 120 frames per second of haptic updates (up to 1,000), that its old drivers and SDK made integration hard, and that the headset's head tracking stopped working once the Falcon was added, so the final demo used a stationary 3D scene.[18]
Academic groups have also built VR systems around the device. A 2019 paper in Electronics described a protocol that combined virtual reality with the Falcon to measure 3D reaching movements against six opposing force fields, tested with 20 subjects.[19] A 2026 study in the International Journal of Medical Informatics described a VR obstetric simulator for midwife training built on the Falcon. The authors wrote that existing virtual medical simulators relied on consumer headsets and controllers that do not provide the haptic feedback this examination technique requires.[20]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Neal Singer (2007-07-20). "Sandia wins five R&D 100 Awards". Sandia Lab News. Sandia National Laboratories. https://www.sandia.gov/labnews/2007/07/20/070720-3/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Reena Jana (2006-08-29). "Tactile tech lets users 'feel' the game". BusinessWeek Online (via NBC News). https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna14575536. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Novint Technologies, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). Novint Technologies, Inc.. 2023-03-31. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1282980/000183988223008634/nvnt-10k_123122.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Novint Technologies, Inc. Form 8-K (share exchange with Dror Ortho-Design Ltd.)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). 2023-08-14. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1282980/000138713123009791/novint_8k-081423.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 "Novint Technologies, Inc. Form 10 registration statement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). Novint Technologies, Inc.. 2019-11-14. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1282980/000138713119008752/nvnt-1012g_111419.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 "Novint Technologies, Inc. Form 10-KSB for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). Novint Technologies, Inc.. 2007-04-02. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1282980/000095013407007228/a28862e10ksb.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 "2007 R&D 100 Award Entry Form: Novint Falcon and Novint/Sandia 3D-Touch Software". Sandia National Laboratories. Novint Technologies and Sandia National Laboratories. 2007. https://www.sandia.gov/app/uploads/sites/156/2021/09/novint_SAND2007-1997P.pdf. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ "Novint Falcon Hitting CompUSA". TechCrunch. 2007-09-27. https://techcrunch.com/2007/09/27/novint-falcon-shipping-for-reals. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ "Novint Technologies, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). Novint Technologies, Inc.. 2009-04-16. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1282980/000114420409020859/v146269_10k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ Brandon Boyer (2008-06-30). "Novint, Valve Bring Falcon Control To Orange Box, Portal". Game Developer. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/novint-valve-bring-falcon-control-to-i-orange-box-portal-i-. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ Devin Coldewey (2009-06-24). "Novint Falcon now officially works with Valve's Orange Box". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2009/06/24/novint-falcon-now-officially-works-with-valves-orange-box/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ "Novint Technologies, Inc. Form 8-K (merger with Force Tek Enterprises, LLC)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). 2011-04-11. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1282980/000114420411021212/v218101_8k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ "Novint Technologies, Inc. Form 15". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). 2011-12-22. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1282980/000119312511350612/d274754d1512g.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ "Novint Technologies, Inc. Form 8-K (share exchange agreement)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). 2023-07-11. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1282980/000138713123008364/novint-8k_070523.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ "Dror Ortho-Design, Inc. (formerly Novint Technologies Inc), CIK 0001282980, filing index". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR). https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001282980. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ "Novint Falcon". Novint Technologies (archived 2009-12-30). http://web.archive.org/web/20091230091919/http://home.novint.com:80/products/novint_falcon.php. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ Sean Fallon (2008-09-12). "Novint Falcon Controller with Gun Attachment Reviewed (Verdict: Awesome)". Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/novint-falcon-controller-with-gun-attachment-reviewed-5049260. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ Jihee Hwang, Cheng Chen (2016). "Falcon City: An Integration of Novint Falcon in Virtual Reality". Stanford EE 267 Virtual Reality course report. https://web.stanford.edu/class/ee267/Spring2016/report_chen_hwang.pdf. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ Emilia Scalona, Darren Hayes, Zaccaria Del Prete, Eduardo Palermo, Stefano Rossi (2019). "Perturbed Point-to-Point Reaching Tasks in a 3D Environment Using a Portable Haptic Device". Electronics, vol. 8, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics8010032. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
- ↑ Carolina Ordoño López, José Pascual Molina Massó, Ana Belén García Bravo, Arturo S. García, Antonio Fernández-Caballero (2026). "A VR obstetric simulator based on the Novint Falcon haptic device: development and evaluation". International Journal of Medical Informatics, vol. 218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2026.106517. Retrieved 2026-10-04.