Qualcomm bought unspecified intellectual property assetsrelated to gesture recognition, as well as some engineering resources from thecompany that was founded in 1986. GestureTek retains some of its assets and will continuation its businessin gesture-enabled digital signs. The companies did not disclose financialdetails of the transaction.
Prior to the deal, GestureTek said it owned eight broadpatents on camera- and video-tracking that issued starting in 1996 and said ithad applied for 37 others. It has developed gesture-recognition technology fordisplays and surfaces used in markets spanning handsets, digital signage, andheath care.
The company first got its software into handsets in 2007 ina deal with Japan's DoCoMo. It also is used in handsets from HTC, Motorola,Nokia, NEC, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG. Licensees for other products includePanasonic, Microsoft (Xbox 360), Sanyo, Sony, IBM, and Intel.
Last year the company demonstrated its software running onAndroid and Symbian environments. It also supports Linux, Nucleus, WindowsMobile, and Qualcomm's Brew for feature phones.
"Applications processors are enabling a range of newways for consumers to interface with their home entertainment and mobiledevices," said Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president and grouppresident, Qualcomm, speaking in a press release. "Our acquisition willstrengthen Qualcomm's smartphone product portfolio and enable our customers tolaunch products with new and compelling user experiences," he added.
Gesture recognition technology will be integrated intoQualcomm's current and next-generation Snapdragon processors, giving OEMs thecapability to produce smartphones, tablets, and home entertainment devices withuser interfaces based on natural human gestures.
The debut of the Nintendo Wii and Apple iPhone heated up themarket for gesture recognition starting in 2008. Hitachi and others showed suchinterfaces at CES in 2009 powered by chips from Canesta and others. MicrosoftKinect, one of the fastest selling consumer products in history, furtherspurred work in gesture recognition with a software developers kit released inJune.
This story was originally posted by EE Times.
Qualcomm buys gesturerecognition technology
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