Sony Depthsensing Solutions SA/NV, formerly known as SoftKinetic, is a
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
company founded by Eric Krzeslo and Thibaud Remacle which develops
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 ...
hardware and software for real-time
range imaging
Range imaging is the name for a collection of techniques that are used to produce a 2D image showing the distance to points in a scene from a specific point, normally associated with some type of sensor device.
The resulting range image has pix ...
(3D) cameras (such as
time-of-flight camera
A time-of-flight camera (ToF camera), also known as time-of-flight sensor (ToF sensor), is a range imaging camera system for measuring distances between the camera and the subject for each point of the image based on time-of-flight, the round tr ...
s). It was founded in July 2007. SoftKinetic provides gesture recognition solutions based on its technology to the interactive
digital entertainment Digital entertainment Industry includes, but is not restricted to, any combination of the following industries (that themselves have a considerable degree of overlap):
*digital media
*new media
*video on demand
*video games
*interactive entertainmen ...
,
consumer electronics
Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic (analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually r ...
,
health & fitness, and
serious game
A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, he ...
industries.
SoftKinetic technology has been applied to interactive
digital signage
Digital signage is a segment of electronic signage. Digital displays use technologies such as LCD, LED, projection and e-paper to display digital images, video, web pages, weather data, restaurant menus, or text. They can be found in public ...
and
advergaming
An advergame is a form of advertising in video games, in which the video game is developed by or in close collaboration with a corporate entity for purposes of advertising a brand-name product. While other video games may use in-game advertising (s ...
,
interactive television
Interactive television is a form of media convergence, adding data services to traditional television technology. It has included on-demand delivery of content, online shopping, and viewer polls. Interactive TV is an example of how new information ...
, and
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 ...
.
Originally centered on providing
software development kit
A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific to ...
s and
middleware
Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue".
Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement co ...
, SoftKinetic branched out into internal game and application development with the establishment of SoftKinetic Studios in September 2009. SoftKinetic then progressed into hardware, partnering with time-of-flight camera developer Optrima in September 2010, with the two companies merging into a reformed SoftKinetic by March 2011.
SoftKinetic's gesture recognition software platform, named ''iisu'', can recognize and distinguish or isolate different scenic elements, can identify and track the body parts of a user, and can adapt the user's shape, posture, and movements to an existing physical model, and vice versa. iisu is compatible with all major real-time range imaging cameras, and the middleware guards developers against the particularities of the hardware.
SoftKinetic's hardware, named ''DepthSense'' (formerly ''OptriCam''),
is a line of 3D time-of-flight imagers based on patented CMOS sensor and time-of-flight (TOF) technologies. Based on Current Assisted Photonic Demodulation (CAPD), the company's patented
CMOS pixel technology, DepthSense hardware products range from sensors to consumer and professional 3D cameras.
SoftKinetic Studios has collaborated on numerous gesture recognition-based projects for various platforms such as PC, consoles, set-top boxes, arcade, and interactive digital signage; with companies such as
Orange Vallée and
Fuel Industries
Fuel Industries was a Canadian online interactive and marketing agency. Founded in 1999 by Mike Burns, Jeff Doiron, Dave Ozipko and Brian Nesbitt, Fuel Industries employed over 150 people and had offices in Los Angeles and Seattle.
Fuel Industrie ...
.
On October 8, 2015, Sony Corporation announced the acquisition of the company.
In December 2017, Softkinetic was renamed to Sony Depthsensing Solutions.
References
{{reflist, 30em
Further reading
* Time-of-flight Optical Ranging Sensor Based on a Current Assisted Photonic Demodulator - D. Van Nieuwenhove, W. Van der Tempel, R. Grootjans and M. Kuijk http://leosbenelux.org/symp06/s06p209.pdf
Middleware
Computer hardware companies
Video game development companies
Gesture recognition
2015 mergers and acquisitions