SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)	3 Months Ended
SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)	Mar. 31, 2019
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Description of Business	Description of Business Immersion Corporation (the “Company”) was incorporated in 1993 in California and reincorporated in Delaware in 1999. The Company focuses on the creation, design, development, and licensing of innovative haptic technologies that allow people to use their sense of touch more fully as they engage with products and experience the digital world around them. The Company has adopted a business model under which it provides advanced tactile software, related tools, and technical assistance designed to help integrate its patented technology into its customers’ products or enhance the functionality of its patented technology to certain customers; and offers licenses to the Company's patented technology to other customers.
Principles of Consolidation and Basis of Presentation	Principles of Consolidation and Basis of Presentation The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Immersion Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiaries: Immersion Canada Corporation; Immersion International, LLC; Immersion Medical, Inc.; Immersion Japan K.K.; Immersion Ltd.; Immersion Software Ireland Ltd.; Haptify, Inc.; Immersion (Shanghai) Science & Technology Company, Ltd.; and Immersion Technology International Ltd. All intercompany accounts, transactions, and balances have been eliminated in consolidation. The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions for Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X and, therefore, do not include all information and footnotes necessary for a complete presentation of the financial position, results of operations, and cash flows, in conformity with GAAP. These condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018. In the opinion of management, all adjustments consisting of only normal and recurring items necessary for the fair presentation of the financial position and results of operations for the interim periods presented have been included. The results of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2019 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full
Segment Information	Segment Information The Company develops, licenses, and supports a wide range of software and IP that more fully engage users’ sense of touch as they engage with products and experience the digital world around them. The Company currently focuses on the following target application areas: mobility, automotive, gaming, medical and wearables. The Company’s chief operating decision maker (“CODM”) is the Chief Executive Officer. The CODM allocates resources to and assesses the performance of the Company using information about its financial results as one operating and reporting segment.
Leases	Leases The Company leases all of its office spaces, and all leases are operating leases accounted for as right-of-use ("ROU") assets and lease liability obligations in the Company's condensed consolidated balance sheets under Other assets, and Other current liabilities and Other Liabilities, respectively. ROU assets represent the Company's right to use an underlying asset for the lease term, and lease liability obligations represent the Company's obligation to make lease payments arising from the lease. ROU assets and lease liabilities are recognized at lease commencement date based on the present value of lease payments over the lease term. The Company has lease agreements that combine lease and non-lease components, and the Company elects to account for such components as a single lease component. As the Company's leases typically do not provide an implicit rate, the Company estimates its incremental borrowing rate based on the information available at commencement date in determining the present value of lease payments. ROU asset also includes any lease payments made and excludes lease incentives and direct costs. Lease expense is recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term. The Company elects to not present leases with an initial term of 12 months or less on its condensed consolidated balance sheet. See Note 11 for further information on ASC 842 adoption.
Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements	Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements In July 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued ASU 2018-09 "Codification Improvement" ("ASU 2018-09"). This ASU amends a wide variety of Topics in the Codification issued by FASB with technical corrections, clarifications, and other minor improvements, and should eliminate the need for periodic agenda requests for narrow and incremental items. Many of the amendments in this ASU are effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018 for public entities. The Company adopted this ASU as of January 1, 2019. The adoption of this ASU did not have a material impact on the Company's condensed consolidated financial statements. In June 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-07 "Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting" ("ASU 2018-07"). This ASU expands the scope of Topic 718 to include share-based payment transaction for acquiring goods and services from nonemployees and supersede subtopic 505-50. For public entities, the guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018 and interim periods within those fiscal years, and early adoption is permitted but no earlier than adoption of Topic 606. The Company adopted this ASU as of January 1, 2019. The adoption of this ASU did not have a material impact on the Company's condensed consolidated financial statements. In February 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-02 "Income Statement-Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income" ("ASU 2018-02"). The amendments in this ASU allow a reclassification from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings for stranded tax effects resulting from the Tax Act. The guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018 and interim periods within those fiscal years, and early adoption is permitted. The Company adopted this ASU as of January 1, 2019. The amount of stranded tax effects that was reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive loss to retained earnings was not material to the Company's condensed consolidated financial statements. In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02 Leases: Topic 842 (“ASU 2016-02”) in order to increase transparency and comparability among organizations by recognizing lease assets and lease liabilities on the balance sheet for those leases classified as operating leases under prior GAAP. Subsequently, the FASB issued numerous amendments to the initial guidance including ASU 2017-13, ASU 2018-10, ASU 2018-11, ASU 2018-20 and ASU 2019-01 (collectively, "ASC 842"). ASC 842 requires that a lessee should recognize a liability to make lease payments (" lease liabilities") and a ROU asset representing its right to use the underlying asset for the lease term on the balance sheet. ASC 842 also requires additional disclosures related to key information about leasing arrangements, including but not limited to, amounts, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. The Company adopted ASC 842 on January 1, 2019 (the "Adoption Date"), using the alternative modified transition method, which requires a cumulative-effect adjustment, if any, to the opening balance of retained earnings to be recognized on the Adoption Date with prior periods not restated. The Company elected certain practical expedients including 1) not to reassess prior conclusions related to the identification, classification and accounting for initial direct costs for leases, 2) not to use hindsight to determine lease terms, 3) to not separate non-lease components within our lease portfolio, and 4) not to present leases with an initial term of 12 months or less on its condensed consolidated balance sheets. The adoption of ASC 842 resulted in the recognition of ROU assets of $4.0 million, and lease liabilities for operating leases of $4.9 million. There was no cumulative effect adjustment recognized on the beginning retained earnings as a result of the adoption. The comparative period presented in this Form 10-Q reflect the former lease accounting guidance. See Note 11 to the condensed consolidated financial statements for further information regarding the impact of the adoption of ASC 842 on the Company's condensed consolidated financial statements.
Revenue Recognition Accounting Policy	Revenue Recognition Accounting Policy The Company's revenue is primarily derived from fixed fee license agreements and per-unit royalty agreements, along with less significant revenue earned from development, services and other revenue. Fixed fee license revenue The Company is required to recognize revenue from a fixed fee license agreement when it has satisfied its performance obligations, which typically occurs upon the transfer of rights to the Company's technology upon the execution of the license agreement. However, in certain contracts, the Company grants a license to its existing patent portfolio at the inception of the license agreement as well as rights to the portfolio as it evolves throughout the contract term. For such arrangements, the Company has concluded that it has two separate performance obligations: •Performance Obligation A: to transfer rights to the Company's patent portfolio as it exists when the contract is executed; •Performance Obligation B: to transfer rights to the Company's patent portfolio as it evolves over the term of the contract, including access to new patent applications that the licensee can benefit from over the term of the contract. If a fixed fee license agreement contains only Performance Obligation A, the Company will recognize most or all of the revenue from the agreement at the inception of the contract. For fixed fee license agreements that contain both Performance Obligation A and B, the Company will allocate the transaction price based on the standalone price for each of the two performance obligations. The Company uses a number of factors primarily related to the attributes of its patent portfolio to estimate standalone prices related to Performance Obligation A and B. Once the transaction price is allocated, the portion of the transaction price allocable to Performance Obligation A will be recognized in the quarter the license agreement is signed and the customer can benefit from rights provided in the contract, and the portion allocable to Performance Obligation B will be recognized on a straight-line basis over the contract term. For such contracts, a contract liability account will be established and included within "deferred revenue" on the condensed consolidated balance sheet. As the rights and obligations in a contract are interdependent, contract assets and contract liabilities that arise in the same contract are presented on a net basis. Some of the Company's license agreements contain fixed fees related to past infringements. Such fixed fees are recognized as revenue or recorded as a deduction to the Company's operating expense in the quarter the license agreement is signed. Payments for fixed fee license contracts typically are due in full within 30 - 45 days from execution of the contract. From time to time, the Company enters into a fixed fee license contract with payments due in a number of installments payable throughout the contract term. In such cases, the Company will determine if a significant financing component exists and if it does, the Company will recognize more or less revenue and corresponding interest expense or income, as appropriate. Per-unit Royalty revenue ASC 606 requires an entity to record per-unit royalty revenue in the same period in which the licensee’s underlying sales occur. As the Company generally does not receive the per-unit licensee royalty reports for sales during a given quarter within the time frame that allows the Company to adequately review the reports and include the actual amounts in its quarterly results for such quarter, the Company accrues the related revenue based on estimates of its licensees’ underlying sales, subject to certain constraints on its ability to estimate such amounts. The Company develops such estimates based on a combination of available data including, but not limited to, approved customer forecasts, a lookback at historical royalty reporting for each of its customers, and industry information available for the licensed products. As a result of accruing per-unit royalty revenue for the quarter based on such estimates, adjustments will be required in the following quarter to true up revenue to the actual amounts reported by its licensees. The Company recorded adjustments to increase revenue by $149,000 during the three months ended March 31, 2019, which adjustments represent the difference between per-unit royalty based on actual sales occurred in the fourth quarter of 2018 reported by the Company's licensees in the first quarter of 2019, and the estimate of per-unit royalty for the fourth quarter of 2018 that was reported as revenue during the fourth quarter of 2018. The Company had no true-ups for the three months ended March 31, 2018. Certain of the Company's per-unit royalty agreements contains a minimum royalty provision which sets forth minimum amounts to be received by the Company during the contract term. Under ASC 606, minimum royalties are considered a fixed transaction price to which the Company will have an unconditional right once all other performance obligations, if any, are satisfied. The Company recognizes all minimum royalties as revenue at the inception of the license agreement, or in the period in which all remaining revenue recognition criteria have been met. The Company accounts for the unbilled minimum royalties as contract assets on a contract basis on its condensed consolidated balance sheets, and the balance of such contract assets will be reduced by the actual royalties to be reported by the licensee during the contract term until fully utilized, after which point any excess per-unit royalties reported will be recognized as revenue. As the rights and obligations in a contract are interdependent, contract assets and contract liabilities that arise in the same contract are presented on a net basis. Payments of per-unit royalties typically are due within 30 to 60 days from the end of the calendar quarter in which the underlying sales took place. Development, services, and other revenue As the performance obligation related to the Company's development, service and other revenue is satisfied over a period of time, the Company recognizes such revenue evenly over the period of performance obligation, which is generally consistent with the contractual term.