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| publisher=Computing History | access-date=15 April 2010}}</ref> he became vice-president for research at Olivetti, in charge of laboratories in the US and Europe. In 1986, Hauser co-founded the [[Olivetti Research Laboratory]] (ORL) in Cambridge with [[Andy Hopper]], who became the laboratory's director. Hauser's role in Acorn was portrayed by [[Edward Baker-Duly]] in the [[BBC]] drama ''[[Micro Men]]''.<ref>{{IMDb title|1459467|Micro Men (TV 2009)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n5b92 | title=BBC Four Programmes Micro Men | work=BBC| access-date=15 April 2010}}</ref>
In 1988, Hauser left Olivetti to start the Active Book Company, investing £1 million of his own money.<ref>{{cite news |title=Active Book Prototype Circuit Boards - Peripheral - Computing History |url=http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/21617/Active-Book-Prototype-Circuit-Boards/ |access-date=28 January 2022 |work=www.computinghistory.org.uk |publisher=Computing History}}</ref> The company sought to develop a portable ARM-based microcomputer "the size of a paperback book", featuring a screen and stylus for interaction and employing a "book" metaphor known as Hyperpage.<ref name="acornuser198909">{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser086-Sep89/page/n8/mode/1up | title=Hauser's Hyperpage | work=Acorn User | last1=Atack | first1=Carol | date=September 1989 | access-date=1 November 2020 | pages=7 }}</ref> The company planned to launch its first product after Christmas 1990, featuring an approximately A5-sized reflective display, automatic recognition of printed, as opposed to cursive, characters, and employing a multipurpose chip called Hercules featuring a static, low-power ARM core. A licensing agreement had been signed with Acorn for access to that company's hardware and software technology, and the company was seeking application developers for the platform.<ref name="acornuser199008_abc">{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser097-Aug90/page/n8/mode/1up | title=Xmas Launch for Active Books | work=Acorn User | date=August 1990 | access-date=6 May 2021 | pages=7 }}</ref> Not wanting to repeat the mistakes made by Acorn, which had kept its technology to itself, he demonstrated the Active Book to as many large companies as he could. [[AT&T Corporation]] acquired Active Book in July 1991{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}} and incorporated it into their [[EO Personal Communicator]], which was released in April 1993.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jerry Kaplan|author-link=Jerry Kaplan|title=Startup: a Silicon Valley adventure|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1994|isbn=0-14-025731-4|location=New York}}</ref> Hauser became chief technical officer and chairman of EO Europe. Sales did not meet expectations, and AT&T's EO subsidiary folded on 29 July 1994.
In 1990, Hauser was involved in spinning out [[ARM Holdings|Advanced RISC Machines (ARM)]] from Acorn.<ref>{{cite news |title=Hermann Hauser: about the Cambridge venture ecosystem, 17 September 2020 |url=https://trinityjapan.org/2020/08/31/17-sep-2020-hermann-hauser/ |work=Trinity in Japan Society |date=31 August 2020}}</ref>
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