Immersion Redefines Wearables Communication With Instinctive Alerts Framework

Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ:IMMR), the leading developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, today announced the Instinctive Alerts Framework, a groundbreaking approach to tactile notifications designed to take advantage of the unique communications capabilities of wearable devices. Combined with Immersion's TouchSense® Core™ Solution for Wearables, the Instinctive Alerts Framework is a new scalable solution for designing a wearable device that effectively and privately communicates to users through tactile effects, without requiring any additional audio or visual context.

"When someone gently touches your arm or grasps your wrist, that feeling conveys a specific meaning. As the leaders of touch feedback technology, we at Immersion continue to learn more about how to bring the value of touch to the digital world,” said Chris Ullrich, vice president of User Experience at Immersion. "Most wearables miss the mark by using haptics to repeatedly disrupt activities or require users to memorize notification meaning, like learning a new language. We, as humans, instinctively understand that touch can communicate importance and intrinsic meaning. Immersion has used this intuition in creating the Instinctive Alerts Framework.”

Immersion’s Instinctive Alerts Framework

Developed from Immersion’s internal research and consumer behavior research findings, the Instinctive Alerts Framework recognizes that the strength and length of tactile effects should correlate directly to the level of user attention required in relation to their current activity. This fundamental principle led to the creation of four distinct alert categories within the Framework – Now This, Know This, Do This, and Review This, as well as a fifth category, Changed This, that provides tactile confirmation when device settings are changed.

Using the Instinctive Alerts Framework, tactile effects are designed to intuitively direct user response from the first use and provide a natural learning curve for understanding the specific meaning of the alerts over time. For example, a notification that is time sensitive and urgent, like an incoming phone call, may have a more rapid and noticeable tactile effect as a part of the Now This category, whereas a subtler Review This effect could communicate the receipt of a less pressing email.

Through ongoing everyday use, users can learn to distinguish the feel of a total of 40 to 70 individual alerts, such as a reminder versus a low battery notification in the Know This category, or "slow down” versus "run intervals” in the Do This category. Accordingly, wearable devices designed using the Instinctive Alerts Framework are easy to use and can communicate a broad array of different tactile meanings, making them more valuable and setting them apart from "single buzz” wearables.

TouchSense Core Solution for Wearables

The precise tactile effects for each category of the Instinctive Alerts Framework were designed using Immersion’s TouchSense Core Solution for Wearables. TouchSense Core Solution for Wearables offers device makers the ability to create a high quality, consistent user experience, and their own unique tactile-enhanced device features, and includes:

• Immersion TS3000 Software: Software that precisely controls the device motor to produce quiet, power-efficient, distinctive tactile effects that vary in strength, length and rhythm.
• Reference Design and Tools: Sample design set and tools for designing effects within the Instinctive Alerts Framework.
• Design & Technical Expertise: Custom tactile design and expert support to make it easy for wearable device manufacturers to quickly integrate and launch new devices to market. Immersion works closely with device manufacturers to help develop tactile effects that complement their brand value and product offerings.

Immersion will demonstrate TouchSense Core Solution for Wearables and the Instinctive Alerts Framework, along with other haptic technology use-cases, at Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona at the Fira Gran Via from March 2 – 5. Get a hands-on feel of this new wearable design and guideline at Immersion’s exhibit located in App Planet, Hall 8.1, Stand 8.1G41.

For more information on TouchSense visit www.touchsense.com.

About Immersion (www.immersion.com)

Founded in 1993, Immersion (NASDAQ:IMMR) is the leading innovator in haptic technology; the company's touch feedback solutions deliver a more compelling sense of the digital world. Using Immersion's high-fidelity haptic systems, partners can transform user experiences with unique and customizable touch feedback effects; excite the senses in games, videos and music; restore "mechanical" feel by providing intuitive and unmistakable confirmation; improve safety by reducing distractions while driving; provide realistic touch feedback when performing robotic medical procedures and training simulations; and expand usability when audio and visual feedback are ineffective. Immersion's TouchSense technology provides haptics in mobile phone, automotive, gaming, medical, and consumer electronics products from world-class companies. With approximately 1,900 issued or pending patents in the U.S., China and other countries, Immersion helps bring the digital universe to life. Hear what we have to say at blog.immersion.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of Immersion Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

All statements, other than the statements of historical fact, are statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the benefits of Immersion’s TouchSense Core Solution for Wearables and Instinctive Alerts Framework solution, as well as the impact of TouchSense Core Solution for Wearables on Immersion’s business.

Immersion's actual results might differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with Immersion's business, which include, but are not limited to: unanticipated difficulties and challenges encountered in product development efforts (including with respect to Immersion’s TouchSense Core Solution for Wearables) by Immersion and its licensees; delay in or failure to achieve adoption of Immersion’s TouchSense Core Solution for Wearables; unanticipated difficulties and challenges encountered in implementation efforts by Immersion’s licensees; adverse outcomes in any future intellectual property-related litigation and the costs related thereto; the effects of the current macroeconomic climate; delay in or failure to achieve commercial demand for Immersion's products or third party products incorporating Immersion's technologies; and lack of market demand for Immersion’s technologies. Many of these risks and uncertainties are beyond the control of Immersion.

For a more detailed discussion of these factors, and other factors that could cause actual results to vary materially, interested parties should review the risk factors listed in Immersion's most current Form 10-Q, which is on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this press release reflect Immersion's beliefs and predictions as of the date of this release. Immersion disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of financial, business, or any other developments occurring after the date of this release.

Immersion, the Immersion logo, TouchSense and TouchSense Core are trademarks of Immersion Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

(IMMR - C)

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