Microsoft has announced that it has acquired Canesta, a leader in 3-D sensing technology and maker of chips that allow game systems and other electronic devices to recognize gesture controls. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Canesta is a leader in 3-D sensing technology, which is critical to making Natural User Interfaces (NUI) possible. According to Jim Spare, Canesta president and CEO, “This is very exciting news for the industry. There is little question that within the next decade we will see natural user interfaces become common for input across all devices. With Microsoft’s breadth of scope from enterprise to consumer products, market presence, and commitment to NUI, we are confident that our technology will see wide adoption across many applications that embody the full potential of the technology.”
The Canesta technology works by beaming a ray of light off multiple objects in front of a CMOS receptor, like that found inside of a digital camera. But extremely high-speed timers attached to different portions of the sensor can actually detect how long it took for the reflected light to reach it, calculating the distance the features are away from it, like a very high-precision radar. This helps the chip “see” the object. Canesta is essentially the very same company, which provided the gesture control technology behind the Sony Eyetoy.
The sensing technology that Canesta provides could be built into Microsoft’s Kinect gaming sensor for Xbox. The current gaming sensor is made by PrimeSense, a rival to Canesta, according to the Times. Kinect is an Xbox add-on that gives users control of the games by using their bodies. It will go on sale on November 4. |
