The Novint Falcon - What is It?

[KenR]

Answer: A 3d game controller (input device) that also provides force feedback based on what is happening in the game.

THE AWARD WINNING NOVINT FALCON
"Novint Technologies opened our eyes to what it's like to actually feel a game.  The Falcon is a first-of-its-kind PC peripheral that makes use of force feedback to allow users to experience artificial 3D-touch "Haptic" sensitivity of virtual objects.  Three articulated arms attach to a center grip that can control games just like a mouse, and highly-developed algorithms apply appropriate forces of resistance to create realistic impressions of weight, recoil, and shock.  We demoed the Falcon with Half-Life 2 and were blown away.  Shotgun blasts produced hard, lurching recoil, while automatic machine gun fire was fast and light with an upward pull on the handle, simulating the barrel-rise effect of automatic fire.  Lifting a box put weight on the handle, and taking damage from the side jerked the controller appropriately as our character stumbled away.  We were blown away..."    ~IGN, Best of E3:  Gear

http://www.novint.com/novintfalcon.htm

[f0dder]

Looks weird.

I wonder why the only pictures of the thing looks like (bad) 3D renderings... why are there no "action shots"?

[mouser]

There are full videos on the website above.

[nudone]

if it's as good as it looks in the videos i'd probably buy one. if it worked with 3d modelling apps.

[f0dder]

There are full videos on the website above.

Doh, didn't see that - was put off by the images and didn't look properly at the site. .mov format, bleh. Now where did I put that "quicktime alternate"?

EDIT: okay, that thing looks funky. But it doesn't look like it's going to be very comfortable to use :-s

[jgpaiva]

But it doesn't look like it's going to be very comfortable to use :-s

My feelings exactly. Also, notice that there already exist some devices just like this one (although i'm not sure if they have the "force feedback" feature).
I don't think it could be used for gaming and work, but sure does look like useful for making sculptures or 3d models.
Still, keeping your arm in that position for few hours would surelly generate some pain.