Tag Archives: 3dSensor

Apple confirms PrimeSense buyout, paves way for motion-controlled future (updated)

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PrimeSense sensor

At last, the will-it-or-won't-it drama surrounding Apple's rumored acquisition of PrimeSense is over. The iPhone maker has confirmed the deal with AllThingsD, issuing its now familiar statement that it buys smaller companies "from time to time." The company isn't discussing its plans or the terms of the deal, but ATD's sources claim that PrimeSense sold for about $360 million, or more than the $345 million that Calcalist reported a week ago. Whatever the value, it's clear that motion control will play a role in Apple's future -- the crew in Cupertino now has access to 3D sensor technology that works in everything from living room devices to smartphones.

Update: PrimeSense has confirmed the acquisition to us, stating "We can confirm the deal with Apple. Further than that, we cannot comment at this stage."

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Source: AllThingsD

PMD and Infineon to enable tiny integrated 3D depth cameras (hands-on)

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PMD and Infineon show off CamBoard Pico S, a tiny 3D depth camera for integration video

After checking out SoftKinetic's embedded 3D depth camera earlier this week, our attention was brought to a similar offering coming from Germany's PMD Technologies and Infineon. In fact, we were lucky enough to be the first publication to check out their CamBoard Pico S, a smaller version of their CamBoard Pico 3D depth camera that was announced in March. Both reference designs are already available in low quantities for manufacturers and middleware developers to tinker with over USB 2.0, so the two companies had some samples up and running at their demo room just outside Computex.

Gallery: PMD and Infineon show off CamBoard Pico and Pico S, tiny 3D depth cameras for integration

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SoftKinetic and TabletKiosk collaborate on 3D interface for tablets

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SoftKinetic adds integrated 3D interface to TabletKiosk tablets

Perhaps in light of Intel's goal of integrating 3D cameras into its devices by the end of 2014, SoftKinetic has partnered with TabletKiosk to bring what it calls the first-ever 3D interface to enterprise tablets. That chunky slab you see above is based on the Sahara Slate PC i500, but with the SoftKinetic DepthSense 3D camera set inside its lower bezel. As seen in our earlier hands-on with 3D-integrated laptops, the little cam can recognize faces and gestures from as close as 15 centimeters away thanks to a Time-of-Flight (ToF) depth sensor, so there's no need for lots of room. Of course, this is just a prototype, and we'll likely only see this in business implementations in the near future. That's a good thing, though, as it looks like it belongs more in a shopping mall than on your kitchen counter. For more on the device, have a peek at the press release after the break.

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Source: SoftKinetic

PrimeSense demonstrates Capri 3D sensor on Nexus 10 (hands-on)

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PrimeSense ready to demo Capri 3D sensor at IO

Take the 3D sensor inside the Microsoft Kinect, shrink it down to a tenth of its original size and add a bunch of mobile capabilities, and you have yourself PrimeSense's latest conquest, better known as Capri. The company, which is the brains behind the Kinect, has been openly working on bringing a tiny-yet-advanced 3D experience to tablets, televisions and smartphones for quite some time now. And it's proud enough of its progress so far that it's willing to give some real-life demonstrations to developers attending Google I/O. You may not see Capri embedded on the PCB of your portable gadget anytime soon -- at least, not until PrimeSense winds up wooing the pants off a lucky OEM or two -- so in the meantime, the company has connected the sensor board to the Nexus 10 via micro-USB.

Unlike the Kinect, however, PrimeSense doesn't think gestures will play a significant role in how we use Capri to interact with our gadgets. Rather, it seems to be more focused on 3D-based use case scenarios, many of which haven't even been thought up yet. As you'll see in the video below, we were shown an AR game that takes the environment around you -- walls, furniture and other elements -- and uses them as restrictions, just as much as they would be in real life. In another app, Capri snapped a three-dimension shot of an object on the table in front of us, captured its measurements and let us export that image to another device or even a 3D printer. In many respects, PrimeSense appears to be taking the same strategy Google does with Glass: get developers excited about the tech in the hopes they'll come up with clever uses for it. And while the company isn't ready to put Capri in their hands yet, the SDK is up for grabs, and I/O is no doubt an ideal place to build excitement for it. If you're looking for more info, we have a gallery, video and press release below, and you'll find the SDK at the More Coverage link.

Gallery: PrimeSense Capri demo at Google IO

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