Apple Reportedly Acquires Kinect Creator PrimeSense



Apple has reportedly bought PrimeSense, the motion-tracking company that was responsible for the technology used in the original Xbox 360 Kinect, for around $345 million.

Today, Israeli news site Calcalist reports that the negotiations for this deal started back in July, at a price tag of around $280 million. According to the report the claims are not accurate and the negotiations between Apple and PrimeSense have been going on nonetheless.

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PrimeSense’s main focus is in its advanced body tracking technology. Microsoft used this technology with the original Xbox 360’s Kinect but later switched to a technology they developed in house.

PrimeSense continues to further develop its systems and is trying to target smaller implementations. One example of this is Capri, which significantly reduces the size of the sensor array while still allowing very precise motion-tracking.

Initially, Capri was seen as the main appeal point for Apple allowing them to be able to include this technology within future iPhones and iPads.

However, according to Calcalist’s report today, Apple’s actual goal for PrimeSense is to have their technologies implemented inside a future television project. This would suggest that the sensors would be built-in to the TV allowing for users to control it by using gestures, instead of a complex remote.

Originally many thought that Apple’s television project would be controlled by Siri, but this could lead us to believe that we may see more than just voice recognition in Apple’s future TV project.

Another suggestion as to where PrimeSense could appear in Apple products is their future smartwatch, dubbed ‘iWatch’, but it is still unclear if the reduced size of Capri is small enough to fit into such a device.

[via SlashGear]