SAN JOSE, Calif. & BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ: IMMR), the leading developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, today announced with LeTV that the two companies have launched a new category in the LeTV App for entertainment content with a tactile experience. “SPECTRE,” featuring Daniel Craig as James Bond, “Hotel Transylvania 2” and “The Expendables 3” premiered as the first movie trailers available with tactile effects in the LeTV App. This launch follows the announcement of an agreement between the two companies to enhance the LeTV App with Immersion’s technology, TouchSense® Engage, as the first video app in China to support haptics.
Specifically developed for mobile entertainment, advertising and games, Immersion’s TouchSense Engage enables content creators to add touch effects to their content. The technology precisely controls the actuator in smartphones and other devices at a certain frequency, duration and speed, making it possible to create an unlimited number of tactile effects. This is synced with the video and audio components, creating a multi-sensory experience with sight, sound and feel. Content creators can use TouchSense Engage to leverage tactile effects as a part of their storytelling and help appeal to viewers on the small screen mobile device.
Tactile videos powered with TouchSense Engage can be viewed using the LeTV App on Android smartphones, including the LeTV smart phone, Xiaomi, Huawei Honor 6 and Meizu MX4.
“Immersive entertainment content for the movie industry is not a new concept,” said ChenSu, vice president of LeVP. “For mobile, however, this is a very innovative approach. With short-form video content viewing rapidly growing on mobile devices, enabling consumers to experience a trailer enhanced with tactile effects is great way to market a movie.”
“LeTV is expanding its entire ecosystem,” the chief editor of LeTV, YuChao added. “Videos with tactile effects provides an immersive experience with audio, video and touch simultaneously, creating a new way to market the entertainment value of a movie. We believe that haptics are a competitive advantage for LeTV and the LeTV App.”
“We’re excited to see LeTV continue to expand on their use of TouchSense Engage and creatively explore tactile effects in content,” said Jason Patton, VP and GM of Content and Media for Immersion. “LeTV is an industry leader in China. As a result, their customers will be the first to experience our innovative approach to enhancing content with tactile effects to bring the best in a multi-sensory experience.”
“Similar to Immersion, we are seeking to provide the ultimate experience for users,” said JianMing Gao, VP of Product at LeTV. “Haptics will be a big component of how we experience our digital world. We’re starting this trend with LeTV content.”
About LeTV
LeTV, China’s first long video content provider, was founded in 2004. It is also the first Chinese video content provider that secured its listing on the Shenzhen GEM bourse (SZ: 300104). Currently, it is the largest Chinese OTT TV content provider that is funded wholly with private capital, making it an independent video content provider in the country. Moreover, the company is the world’s first network company that has launched smart TV sets under its own brand.
Since its establishment, LeTV has consistently adhered to its genuine copyrighted works and long-format videos. With exclusive copyrights over more than 70 percent of popular domestic films and TV programs, it has emerged to be China’s largest library of online films, drama and sports programs. Being aligned to its brand slogan “Overwhelm with Multi-screens”, LeTV is the first video content provider to promote an organic integration of computers, phones, tablets and LeTV smart TV sets and cinema screens created with LeVP.
LeTV has also come up with its unique business ecosystem which combined “platform, content, terminal and application” that helps to optimize the efficiency of every “value point.” While offering advertisers effective marketing and branding services, LeTV has also pushed forward innovative development as well as progressive consolidation of the industry.
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 and videos; restore "mechanical" feel by providing intuitive and unmistakable confirmation; may 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 over 1,900 issued or pending patents in the U.S., China and other countries, Immersion helps bring the digital universe to life. Learn more at www.immersion.com or www.touchsense.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 potential impact of the launch of haptic-enabled mobile movie trailers by LeTV, the release of haptic-enabled content in China, the use of Immersion's TouchSense Engage technology, and the use of TouchSense software in mobile phones.
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 TouchSense Engage) by Immersion and its licensees; 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 a delay in or failure to achieve the acceptance of touch feedback as a critical user experience. 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-K and Form 10-Q, both of which are 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 Engage are trademarks of Immersion Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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