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Gesture recognition deals and a micro-gesture future

We reported on Extreme Reality (XTR) about a year ago, as one of several gesture recognition start-ups that looked soon to be hot.  Now it's been reported that XTR closed deals with both Samsung and NEC, for their technology to be used on those companies' computers.

As we said previously, Israel-based XTR's technology does work on mobile, but the company's focus is on webcam-equipped computers. Their technology delivers full-body gesture recognition, implemented fully in software, using standard camera technology.  Both Samsung and NEC are reportedly using the technology for computers, not mobile phones.

So what will be next in gesture recognition?  Other gesture recognition companies are likely to be in play soon, including software solution companies like EyeSight, 3D-camera-based middleware solution companies like Omek Interactive and LM3Labs, and CMOS companies like SoftKinetic.

Even more exciting to us, however, is the growing area of "micro-gestures" for mobile devices.  Umoove’s technology focuses on the user’s face from a smartphone or tablet front-facing camera, and recognizes where the user’s eyes are looking and which way their head is tilted.  PointGrab recognizes hands, both where they move and there they make a grabbing motion.  Grizzly Analytics thinks that micro-gesture recognition, particularly for recognizing facial gestures and expressions, will be a growing area in 2013.

The trend appears clear - gesture recognition is a field which is on the move.

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