GestureTek is an American-based interactive technology company headquartered in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

, California, with offices in Toronto and

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Ontario and Asia.

Founding

Founded in 1986 by Canadians Vincent John Vincent and Francis MacDougall, this privately held company develops and licenses

gesture recognition Gesture recognition is a topic in computer science and language technology with the goal of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms. It is a subdiscipline of computer vision. Gestures can originate from any bodily motion or sta ...

software based on

computer vision Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the hum ...

techniques. The partners invented video gesture control in 1986 and received their base patent in 1996 for the GestPoint video gesture control system. GestPoint technology is a camera-enabled

video tracking Video tracking is the process of locating a moving object (or multiple objects) over time using a camera. It has a variety of uses, some of which are: human-computer interaction, security and surveillance, video communication and compression, aug ...

software system that translates hand and body movement into computer control. The system enables users to navigate and control interactive multi-media and menu-based content, engage in virtual reality game play, experience

immersion Immersion may refer to: The arts * "Immersion", a 2012 story by Aliette de Bodard * ''Immersion'', a French comic book series by Léo Quievreux * ''Immersion'' (album), the third album by Australian group Pendulum * ''Immersion'' (film), a 2021 ...

in an

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...

environment or interact with a consumer device (such a television, mobile phone or set top box) without using touch-based peripherals. Similar companies include gesture recognition specialist LM3LABS based in

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Technology

GestureTek's gesture interface applications include multi-touch and 3D camera tracking. GestureTek's

multi-touch In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one somatosensory system, point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CER ...

technology powers the multi-touch table in Melbourne's

Eureka Tower Eureka Tower is a skyscraper located in the Southbank precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction began in August 2002 and the exterior was completed on 1 June 2006. The plaza was finished in June 2006 and the building was offici ...

. A GestureTek multi-touch table with

object recognition Object recognition – technology in the field of computer vision for finding and identifying objects in an image or video sequence. Humans recognize a multitude of objects in images with little effort, despite the fact that the image of the ...

is found at the New York City Visitors Center. Telefónica has a

window with technology from GestureTek. GestureTek's 3D tracking technology is used in a

3D television 3D television (3DTV) is television that conveys depth perception to the viewer by employing techniques such as stereoscopic display, multi-view display, 2D-plus-depth, or any other form of 3D display. Most modern 3D television sets use an ...

prototype from Hitachi and various digital signage and display solutions based on 3D interaction.

Patents

GestureTek currently has 8 patents awarded, including: 5,534,917 (Video Gesture Control Motion Detection); 7,058,204 (Multiple Camera Control System, Point to Control Base Patent); 7,421,093 (Multiple Camera Tracking System for Interfacing With an Application); 7,227,526 (Stereo Camera Control, 3D-Vision Image Control System); 7,379,563 (Two-Handed Movement Tracker Tracking Bi-Manual Movements); 7,379,566 (Optical Flow-Based Tilt Sensor For Phone Tilt Control); 7,389,591 (Phone Tilt for Typing & Menus/Orientation-Sensitive Signal Output); 7,430,312 (Five Camera 3D Face Capture). GestureTek's software and patents have been licensed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

for the EyeToy, NTT DoCoMo for their mobile phones and

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

for the ION Educational Gaming System. In addition to software provision, GestureTek also fabricates interactive gesture control display systems with

natural user interface In computing, a natural user interface (NUI) or natural interface is a user interface that is effectively invisible, and remains invisible as the user continuously learns increasingly complex interactions. The word "natural" is used because most c ...

for interactive advertising, games and presentations. In addition, GestureTek's natural user interface virtual reality system has been the subject of research by universities and hospitals for its application in both

physical therapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patient ...

and

physical rehabilitation Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patient ...

. In 2008, GestureTek received the Mobile Innovation Global Award from the GSMA for its software-based, gesture-controlled user interface for mobile games and applications. The technology is used by Java platform integration providers and mobile developers.

Katamari Damacy () is a third-person puzzle-action video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan in March 2004 and in North America in September 2004. Designer Keita Takahashi struggled to pitch the game to Namco' ...

is one example of a gesture control mobile game powered by GestureTek software.

Competitors

Other companies in the industry of interactive projections for marketing and retail experiences include Po-motion Inc., Touchmagix and LM3LABS.
LM3LABS blog
'

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gesturetek Applications of artificial intelligence Technology companies of the United States Multimedia frameworks Gesture recognition Technology companies established in 1986