Tom Anderson, Chief Executive Officer
Prior to starting Novint, Tom Anderson led the development of some of the first 3D touch applications in the world at Sandia National Laboratories. In 2000 he founded Novint, assembling a world class team. Mr. Anderson licensed over five years of Sandia’s groundbreaking research and oversaw Novint’s fundraising and business development efforts, building a significant portfolio of intellectual property and patents, positioning the company to successfully enter the consumer market. Mr. Anderson has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico, and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, where he studied computer interface technology and business management.

Bill Anderson, Director of Game Development
Bill Anderson has worked in the field of haptics for over seven years and has over three years of game development experience.  He worked at Sandia National Laboratories, and led a project to create haptic medical simulation tools in conjunction with the University of New Mexico Hospital.  He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Universiy of New Mexico to receive his BS in Electrical Engineering, and subsequently received his MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, with a focus on robotics and haptic interfaces.

Walter Aviles, CTO & Vice President Engineering
Novint’s Chief Technology Officer, Walter A. Aviles, has over 20 years of technical and managerial experience in commercial, government, and academic environments where he has spearheaded the design and development of advanced, first of a kind, human/machine interfaces, virtual environments and robotic systems. Prior to joining Novint, Walter was a Vice President at SensAble Technologies and a founding Principal at Teneo Computing. At SensAble, Walter helped establish the company's software group, produced the world's first commercial haptic software development toolkit, and led the development of the FreeForm haptically enabled 3D product design application. He later received the first Grand Innovation Award ever presented by Computer Graphics World and is used by customers such as Hasbro, Mattel/Fisher-Price and New Balance. At Teneo, he continued to help pioneer the development of commercial, haptically enabled solutions for customers such as Mobil, NHK and Harvard. Walter holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Stanford University and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Chi engineering honor associations.

Antonia Chappell, Vice President Marketing
Antonia has held high-level marketing, creative, and business development positions in the converging worlds of entertainment, new media, and technology throughout her career. As the Director of Media Partnerships and Advertising at TiVo she forged relationships with major media companies and advertisers and helped launch one of the most exciting consumer products in recent history. Antonia has worked with start-ups and established media companies developing content, marketing, and partnership strategies. She was the Senior Vice President and founding member of Inscape, an HBO/Warner Music Group company, an award-winning early pioneer in CD-ROM games. Antonia holds degrees in English and Communication from the University of Washington and pursued post-graduate studies in Los Angeles. She is an executive member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and is a published poet and photographer.

Kevin Resnick, Vice President Sales
Kevin brings thirty years of sales experience from the consumer electronic and video game software and accessory industry to Novint. Along with his strong business relationships with major retail accounts, he has years of proven sales success. Prior to joining Novint, Kevin was Senior Vice President of Sales for Intec, Inc. for five years where he was an integral part of the launch of their video game accessory product line. Subsequently, he worked for Interact Accessories, a Recoton Company, as Vice President of Sales and President of the international division. His traveling throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America, to meet with retailers and establish business relationships, was instrumental in building Interact as a market leader in the video game accessory industry. He also worked four years as National Sales manager for Gametek Inc, the developer and publisher of Nintendo and Sega software games. In the beginning stages of video game hardware and mass produced computers, Kevin owned and operated a wholesale distributing company in New York City where he was exposed to the buying, selling, and marketing of consumer products.

Ed Zanelli, Director of Community Software
Ed Zanelli joins Novint through the company’s acquisition of Tournabout, Inc., where he was a co-founder and CTO. Previously, Ed was the CEO for Inferscape, Inc., a privately held company that developed software to perform autonomous Bayesian data mining on large-scale databases. From 1993 to 2000 Ed was the principal of Envisage Systems, a software consulting company that delivered solutions for interactive television and computer-based training. From 1987 to 1993, Ed held various key engineering and engineering management positions at Oracle Corporation, Sybase and Siebel Systems. Ed has degrees in Engineering & Applied Science and Economics from the California Institute of Technology.

Board of Directors

Marvin Maslow, Director
Marvin Maslow is the CEO of Manhattan Scientifics, the incubator company that provided seed capital for Novint. Maslow has provided a strong guiding hand during Novint’s early growth. With a background in merchant banking, Marvin founded and managed ten successful enterprises. Later, he was the principal in a private investment company and placed substantial capital in privately held, emerging growth companies. His responsibilities involved managing these investments as well as the growth and direction of their attendant organizations as the companies matured.

V. Gerald Grafe
V. Gerald Grafe is a founding partner of Hisey Grafe, P.C., a New Mexico law firm active in business and technology law. Gerald started his career at Sandia National Laboratories, first as a member of the technical staff researching computer architectures and robotics, and then as an attorney working on intellectual property and technology transfer. More recently, Gerald has served as intellectual property counsel and general counsel for numerous startups, venture-funded companies, and public companies. He counsels clients in venture formation, strategic planning, intellectual property protection, financing, and joint ventures.

The idea of virtual touch in computing is as foreign to most people as the concept of television was in the age of radio. But, like the innovation of TV, the Novint Falcon, powered by our patented 3D touch technology, represents an entirely new way to experience games. Touch is an integral part of how we experience things, both physically and emotionally. Until now, high-fidelity touch has been absent from computer interface. Like movies before the introduction of sound, today’s games are missing an important part of the sensory experience. So grab the Falcon and feel the next generation of gaming!

How the Novint Falcon Works

Users hold onto the Falcon’s interchangeable Grip (or handle) which moves left and right and forwards and backwards, like a computer mouse, but also moves up and down. The Grip can come in many shapes and forms and includes a quick disconnect feature which lets users change handles for specific uses or types of game play. As the Grip is moved, the computer keeps track of a 3D cursor. When the 3D cursor touches a virtual object, the computer registers contact with that object and updates currents to motors in the device to create an appropriate force to the device’s handle, which the user feels. The computer updates the position of the device, and updates the currents to the motors a thousand times a second (i.e. at a 1 kilohertz rate), providing a very realistic sense of touch. The three electrical motors are connected to the three arms extending out of the device, with one motor connected to each arm. The three arms are connected to the device’s handle. At any given cycle, or 1/1000th of a second, the device can create a force on the handle in any direction of any magnitude, up to the maximum force.

For example, when a 3D cursor touches a virtual sphere, there is a force normal (perpendicular) to the surface. The device reacts and pushes in the radial direction away from the center of the sphere, proportional to how hard the user pushes against the sphere. The computer keeps track of the direction of the force (based on the position of the cursor) and the amount of the force, 1000 times a second which lets the user slide the 3D cursor across the surface of the sphere, giving it a consistent smooth feel. The effect is that the cursor, and therefore device, physically cannot move through the sphere, and it is actually a virtual solid object. When one looks at the Novint Falcon itself (rather than the cursor and sphere graphics on the computer screen), one can see the “invisible” sphere in the haptic workspace where the haptic device cannot move – it is really there, and you can really touch it! Additionally, other forces and algorithms can be used to give the sphere texture, dynamic properties (i.e. it can bounce like a ball), deformability, or a variety of other effects.

Part 2