Canesta raises $16 million for 3-D imaging interfaces
OCTOBER 21, 2009--Canesta (Sunnyvale, CA, USA; www.canesta.com) announced it has raised $16 million in additional capitalization. Joining returning investors Carlyle Growth Partners, Hotung Venture Group, and Venrock are two new investors: Quanta Computer, the world's largest manufacturer of notebook computers, and SMSC, a provider of smart mixed-signal connectivity solutions.
Canesta's CMOS 3-D time-of-flight sensor provides a real-time, depth map of the surrounding area to PCs, consumer electronics devices such as televisions, videogames, or smartphones. The company said that the strategic investments by Quanta and SMSC signal an increasing interest worldwide in applying 3-D human-interface device capabilities to personal computer applications.
Earlier this year, Hitachi and Canesta demonstrated a television that enables consumers to navigate an array of television-based services using a visual 3-D interface and natural gesture-based controls. Applications of 3-D natural interfaces on the PC include: hands-free gesture control, facial recognition, background substitution for video conferencing and virtual sets, avatar control for 3-D virtual communities, augmented reality, and immersive personalized advertising.
-- Posted by Conard Holton, Vision Systems Design, www.vision-systems.com