News Release For Immediate Release

August 1, 1996, New Orleans LA: General Reality Company today announced several new solutions for the 5th Glove finger-sensing glove device, including hand motion capture in Alias|wavefront and Softimage, real-time facial puppeteering, and context-sensitive gesture recognition for virtual reality applications.

The unobtrusive 5th Glove connects to any serial port, and utilizes advanced fiber-optic bend sensors for each finger to provide 200hz output of each finger's bend angle at 8-bit precision. Priced at just $495, the 5th Glove has been the fastest selling glove device in the world since its introduction in early 1995. Now, a series of software solutions extends the glove to new applications, including:

• ImageGlove^TM and ImageTrak^TM: New Softimage solutions by Lionhearth Technologies provide animators with low-cost real-time hand position, gesture capture, and channel drivers using one or two 5th Gloves and low-cost Polhemus InsideTrak^® hardware. Complete solutions begin at $995.

• GloveMotion^TM: New Alias|wavefront solution uses hand position and gesture capture to drive any ShapeShifter^® operation from multiple tracked gloves, providing an easy way to animate hands, lips, facial expressions, or complete humanoids in real-time. Complete solutions begin at $1,495.

• GloveGRASP^TM: New VR developers kit provides a complete context sensitive gesture recognition system for Silicon Graphics^® platforms, enabling virtual reality applications such as virtual prototyping, immersive training, and user interface evaluation. Developers kits begin at $995.

According to Arthur Zwern, president of General Reality Company, "In addition to these new solutions, many of the leading motion capture companies including Polhemus, Ascension, Simgraphics, and Vierte Art are now using the 5th Glove to add hands and fingers to their full-body motion capture systems at low cost. And, new drivers are available for Sense8's WorldToolKit, Superscape, Amber, VEGA VR, and Clarus Interactive. Because the 5th Glove provides the intuitive control interface VR has always promised, we're continuing to explore new ways to use this powerful, low-cost device".

Several new 5th Glove applications will be displayed at General Reality's SIGGRAPH booth #2455, while others will be demonstrated throughout the show floor. General Reality will hold a drawing for a free 5th Glove and solution at the end of the show. The 5th Glove hardware is priced at $495 right hand and $595 left, with delivery immediate and significant volume discounts available. Prices for application software solutions vary. For additional information, please contact General Reality Company at 408-289-8340, FAX 408-289-8258, email sales@genreality.com

General Reality Company is a leading supplier of high-performance virtual reality products for scientific, commercial, and public entertainment applications, with a customer base that includes hundreds of leading virtual reality researchers, Fortune 500 companies, and government agencies.

ShapeShifter, Alias|wavefront, and the Alias|wavefront logo are trademarks of Alias|wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. Silicon Graphics is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Softimage is a trademark of Microsoft. All other trademarks are property of their respective holders.