Making Sense

BMW’s Z9 study car combines a haptic input device, on the console, with a display screen. With the long-range problem in view, BMW began speaking to the engineers at Immersion about the possibility of designing a mouse for the car. The target vehicle would be the 2001 7 series. An actual computer mouse in a car is one of those products that probably would cause a crash. According to an expert, strength of the mechatronics discipline is its notion of multivariable optimization, the idea of trying to solve the problem in the right place. Although the medical trainers for which Immersion provides tactile feedback look similar when seen from Schena’s favorite zoomed-out perspective, up close they are fundamentally distinct.