The Novint Falcon is an all new approach to interacting with your PC and it’s just a little revolutionary.

Once you free it from its oversized box, the Falcon sits on your desk like a shapely resting robot. Its smooth lines and white, rounded features are reminiscent of the design of Valve’s superlative puzzler Portal and its gently glowing central light adds another touch of sentience to the unit.

Installation is stress free and once you have the Falcon hooked up to USB and power, you’ll find yourself in a tutorial which is where the potential of this new device is first revealed. A nondescript introduction leads to an interface presenting a rock like surface on the screen. Simply hold the Falcon’s grip and move the pointer in 3D space towards the rock...

In our time with the Falcon we introduced a dozen people to the device through this demonstration and the reaction was never less than delighted surprise, sometimes bordering on awe. Each crevice of the knurled and broken surface of the rock can be felt in the resistance of the grip, and the 3-dimensional nature of the object allows you to cup your pointer around the far side of rock. The demo moves on to other surfaces, like molasses, sand and ice and further still to rudimentary catapult games and baseball catching. But the rock is the one everyone returns to, and it truly is a revelation.

The Falcon is a haptic device – essentially one which uses touch as well as movement to translate information to the user. Thus, a visual 3D model on screen becomes a tangible 3D object when you interact using the device. It uses a complicated series of motors and actuators to simulate weight and resistance in a way which opens up the interactive experience of using a computer to a sense which has long been neglected. The applications of the technology are widespread, including its use in microsurgery (to control precision instruments inside the body with minute detail) to stimulating the victims of debilitating accidents and allowing for a whole new approach to visual design programs. But the Falcon, the first domestically available haptic device, is aimed firmly at a specific target audience – the gamer.

Together with industry leading partners like Valve, Novint have brought the power of touch to the videogame world. A million miles from the aggressive rumble of vibration controllers, the Falcon has the potential to simulate not only the accurate forces of recoil but also give you tangible feedback for when you are being hit and more subtle effects – like being able to feel the textures of surfaces in game.

So, does it live up to this potential? We jumped right into Valve’s Orange Box – a compendium of titles which includes Falcon-ready titles like Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2; Episodes 1 and 2.