About Us

Since 1995, Firsthand has been creating interactive Virtual Reality applications for education, training, business, research and therapy. Our services include creative design, application development, authorized sales of Virtools VR development software, and customized turnkey VR hardware systems.

Our History

In 1994, Firsthand founders Ari Hollander, Kimberley Osberg Lippman and Howard Rose began working together at the Human Interface Technology Lab (Univ. of Washington, Seattle) on an innovative project to put VR technologies in the hands of public school students. This groundbreaking effort, led by educator Dr. William Winn, demonstrated that emerging interactive, real-time technologies, which had historically been limited to the realms of the military or exotic research, hold vast potential to revolutionize the way people learn, work and play with computers.

Ari, Kimberley and Howard started Firsthand Technology Inc. in 1995 to take the best practices using VR technology for education, training and research out of the lab into the real world. Our mission statement, “Making technology work for people.” expresses our ideal that a human-centered vision of computers is necessary to both advance the field and make these machines a whole lot more enjoyable, interesting and powerful. In 2001 Kimberley chose to leave Firsthand to co-found her own company, TrustedMedia Networks.

Firsthand Today

Today the uses for VR, real-time 3D and serious games have expanded into diverse fields of medical training, therapeutic pain management, exposure therapy of PTSD and phobias, business, architecture and advergames. Success in these markets demands experience, creativity and high production values. Firsthand has worked at the forefront of these fields and can provide you with:

Innovative technology solutions to transform your great ideas into engaging and effective simulations and games. We can help develop your project from initial conception into a complete design and deployment strategy.
Application Development: Firsthand can build all aspects of your application including graphics, 3D models and characters, and programming.
Complete VR systems sales, installation and support: Firsthand is an authorized reseller for Virtools VR development software and leading VR hardware manufacturers, enabling us to offer top quality systems at competitive prices. Custom systems for SnowWorld Pain Control Available.
Integrated web development: Bring your web site alive with interactive 3D worlds embedded in your web page. Virtools offers an excellent platform for interactive training, high quality sales presentations and advergaming.
Personalized technical support and on-site training to get you up and running fast and maintain your system.

Our Clients page introduces a cross-section of past projects with universities and hospitals, Fortune 500 companies, the Department of Defense and the U.S. government.

For more information please contact:
Firsthand Technology Inc.
2100 Westlake Avenue North, Suite 107
Seattle, WA 98109
206-361-6400