PrimeSense tech seen powering gesture controls for future Apple television products
Apple's confirmed purchase of PrimeSense, makers of technology that powered Microsoft's first-generation Kinect sensor, has helped to fuel speculation that a future Apple TV product, whether a next-generation set-top box or a full-fledged television set, will be controlled by gestures.
After Apple confirmed on Sunday that it has bought Israeli company PrimeSense, analyst Maynard Um of Wells Fargo Securities said he believes Apple will leverage the technology to add innovative control methods to its living room based efforts. He views the PrimeSense purchase as a good move for Apple, as the analyst feels the company was lagging behind rivals Samsung and Microsoft in that respect.
"We believe the announcement may be an indication that Apple is in early preparation for a television offering or material functional improvements to its current Apple TV offering," Um said in a note to investors on Monday.
However, the analyst doesn't expect that Apple will release a television set in the near future. If the company were to develop and sell its own TV set, such a device is "unlikely" to be released in 2014, he believes.
The three-dimensional motion tracking technology was most famously used by Microsoft in its first-generation Kinect sensor for Xbox 360. Since then, with its new Xbox One game console, the next-generation version of Kinect has switched to technology from Microsoft-acquired companies 3DV and Canesta.
Outside of Kinect, PrimeSense's technology has been found in devices such as iRobot's Ava healthcare robot and Matterport's full-color 3D scanners. In those devices, PrimeSense's sensors are used to create a three-dimensional model of the environment for navigation and human interaction.
The price tag for PrimeSense is said to be be between $345 and $360 million. Bloomberg pegged the deal at $350 million, though Apple has not revealed how much it paid.
Apple has a history of buying highly specific companies for key features in upcoming products. Its acquisition of PA Semi for $278 million in 2008 paved the way for custom A-series chips in the iPhone and iPad, while the purchase of Lala for $85 million in late 2009 set the stage for iTunes Match and iTunes in the Cloud.
More recently, Apple bought AuthenTec, maker of fingerprint scanning technology, in 2012 for $356 million. Just over a year later, that technology was introduced as Touch ID, the new secure fingerprint sensor found in Apple's flagship iPhone 5s.
After Apple confirmed on Sunday that it has bought Israeli company PrimeSense, analyst Maynard Um of Wells Fargo Securities said he believes Apple will leverage the technology to add innovative control methods to its living room based efforts. He views the PrimeSense purchase as a good move for Apple, as the analyst feels the company was lagging behind rivals Samsung and Microsoft in that respect.
"We believe the announcement may be an indication that Apple is in early preparation for a television offering or material functional improvements to its current Apple TV offering," Um said in a note to investors on Monday.
However, the analyst doesn't expect that Apple will release a television set in the near future. If the company were to develop and sell its own TV set, such a device is "unlikely" to be released in 2014, he believes.
The three-dimensional motion tracking technology was most famously used by Microsoft in its first-generation Kinect sensor for Xbox 360. Since then, with its new Xbox One game console, the next-generation version of Kinect has switched to technology from Microsoft-acquired companies 3DV and Canesta.
Outside of Kinect, PrimeSense's technology has been found in devices such as iRobot's Ava healthcare robot and Matterport's full-color 3D scanners. In those devices, PrimeSense's sensors are used to create a three-dimensional model of the environment for navigation and human interaction.
The price tag for PrimeSense is said to be be between $345 and $360 million. Bloomberg pegged the deal at $350 million, though Apple has not revealed how much it paid.
Apple has a history of buying highly specific companies for key features in upcoming products. Its acquisition of PA Semi for $278 million in 2008 paved the way for custom A-series chips in the iPhone and iPad, while the purchase of Lala for $85 million in late 2009 set the stage for iTunes Match and iTunes in the Cloud.
More recently, Apple bought AuthenTec, maker of fingerprint scanning technology, in 2012 for $356 million. Just over a year later, that technology was introduced as Touch ID, the new secure fingerprint sensor found in Apple's flagship iPhone 5s.
Comments
Apple innovation again. Copying Microsoft.
Irony?
Could only be.
For those who did not get it:
Oh goody. Imagine the automated covert surveillance of your home activities once the NSA hacks it.
Google makes money with yr web activities, No Such Agency was build is supported by politicians that can be get-rid-of.
And if Apple does something that the Kinect doesn't do then is it still copying the way you and your ilk claim Apple did nothing extraordinary with touch displays, their own silicon, or anything else since the start of the computer revolution?
Touch displays were first introduced by Microsoft as a Pocket PC even Tablet computers with a Stylus. Apple improved upon their technology. They took their existing technology to the next level. They might do it again with their version of Kinect.
MS was first to introduce?
Touch displays were first introduced by Microsoft as a Pocket PC even Tablet computers with a Stylus. Apple improved upon their technology. They took their existing technology to the next level. They might do it again with their version of Kinect.
Not their tech, Apple implemented its version ( Apple tech is based on fingerPrint tech, if i am not mistaken ).
Microsoft did write its version of the PrimeSense technology in the latest XBox.
Yes I had a Viewsonic Pocket PC and a Pocket PC phone. Here is a link. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2002/feb02/02-19phoneeditionpr.aspx
Touch displays were first introduced by Microsoft as a Pocket PC even Tablet computers with a Stylus.
Oof, you just waved a red flag at a rodeo. Not even close to true.
What does it mean?
What do you think it means?
What does it mean?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_MessagePad
And I'd be careful about claiming anything technological as "the first". There's almost always something relevant that predates your claim, unless you've studied the topic in great depth.
Thanks for the Link. I know about the Newton and Palm Pilot. The Pocket PC was closer to an iPhone because it was a Phone touch screen the first of its kind. That is what I meant. Apple improved on that and they might do the same again.
One of the first, and perhaps THE first, commercially available touchscreen phones was the Simon from IBM. That was about 20 years ago.
Don't buy it then?
BIG difference between 'commercially available' and commercially successful'.