mike_barton
Editor

GestureTek’s Wii-like control could be next killer enterprise tech

news
May 21, 20072 mins

Think the upcoming Apple iPhone’s touchscreen interface is “revolutionary,” as Steve Jobs suggests?

Think different — or at least beyond the touchscreen. GestureTek’s Nintendo Wii-like motion-control input tech (see video demo) will advance the cell phone beyond telecom.

The technology uses the camera’s input, gauging movement by comparing images in the stream, and it doesn’t have to be run on high-end phone, says the company’s co-founder and president, Vincent John Vincent.

But with smarter phones and advanced networks, it’s not hard to envision more advanced applications for business with its possible multi-user interaction and collaboration.

The company signed a major deal with Japan’s NTT DoCoMo to embed its tech on advanced phones last month, and it has a deal with Verizon in the U.S. for downloading its tech for use with two games. It works with 25 Verizon phones.

The company has been developing such technology, mainly using video surveillance cameras, for 20 years. But bringing the technology to mobile is its next frontier with games the obvious first round. “This is taking our [technology] to the cell market.”

Games are the obvious “first splash” for the Wii-like tech for mobile, but as mobile applications like maps develop, the possibilities for turning mobiles into control devices seem endless to me.

John Vincent describes scrolling on maps, and zooming and panning, as obvious applications. And the iPhone with GestureTek technology could be very cool, with a possible “3D finger” capability for touchscreens.

Multi-user applications, such as playing a multiplayer game or collaboration on a project in 3D, could be made possible with 3G streaming videophones, such as those that are popular in Asia with carriers like Hutchison’s Three and NTT DoCoMo, John Vincent says.

Where it goes next is open for market forces, and I could see it easily plugging in to enterprise applications or workforces in health care, just for one instance. John Vincent would not comment on if any deals were in the works on business applications.

mike_barton

Mike Barton started out in online slinging HTML for CNET.com in the late 1990s and began his editorial career at New Media magazine shortly thereafter. In his early days, he was an editor at Ziff-Davis's PC Computing and ZDNet.com before heading Down Under, where he produced and edited the business and technology sections of The Sydney Morning Herald online. After returning to the States in 2006, he has worked for IDG's Infoworld, PCWorld, Computerworld, and CSO Online. He currently edits and produces WIRED.com's Innovation Insights, and is a contributing editor at ITworld.

More from this author