Gestigon (stylized as gestigon) is a

software development Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

company founded in September 2011, to develop software for gesture control and body tracking based on 3D depth data. , Gestigon began developing

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

and automotive solutions for

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

Renault
and

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

, and also AR/ VR headsets. In March 2017, Gestigon was acquired by

Valeo Valeo is a French global automotive supplier headquartered in France, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange ( CAC Next 20 Index). It supplies a wide range of products to automakers and the aftermarket. The Group employs 113,600 people in 29 countri ...

, a French automotive supplier.

History

The company was founded by Sascha Klement, Erhardt Barth, and Thomas Martinetz. Sascha Klement worked as a student assistant and Ph.D. student for the professors Thomas Martinetz and Erhardt Barth, who have been developing software solutions based on time-of-flight sensors at the University of Lübeck since 2002. Together they founded Gestigon in 2011 with seed-funding from High-Tech Gründerfonds, Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Schleswig-Holstein and local business angels. In March 2012, Moritz von Grotthuss joined the company as advisor and later rose to CEO. In the same month, Gestigon was 1 of 15 companies that received an Innovation Award at

CeBIT CeBIT was a computer expo which, at its peak, was the largest and most internationally representative. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was c ...

2012. In January 2013, Gestigon participated at CES in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

and, later that year, also at TechCrunch Disrupt in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The next year

Visteon Visteon Corporation (VC) is an American global automotive electronics supplier based in Van Buren Township, Michigan. Visteon designs, engineers, and manufactures vehicle cockpit electronics products, connected car services and electrification p ...

and

used Gestigon's gestures solutions in their products presented at CES 2014. It won the

Innovation Award again in 2014. Gestigon's technologies were included Audi at CES 2015 and CES 2016; Volkswagen and Infineon. Gestigon launched its Virtual Reality solution Carnival at the TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco in September 2015, using an Oculus Rift and different depth sensors. The first demo using a mobile device was done at the CES in 2015. In 2015, Gestigon partnered with Inuitive, a 3D computer vision and image processors developer, to create a VR unit. The system was presented at CES 2016 assembled on an

Oculus Rift Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets, virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality indust ...

development kit. In July 2015, Gestigon closed its Series A financing round from with nbr technology ventures GmbH as a primary investor headed by Fabian von Kuenheim and High-Tech Gründerfonds and Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures. Fabian von Kuenheim became chairman of the advisory board which was also composed of the German entrepreneur Holger G. Weiss and the French investor Gunnar Graef. In March 2017, Gestigon was acquired by French automotive supplier,

. In March 2017, Gestion developed software that recognizes driving gestures.

Products

Gestigon develops software that works with 3D sensors to recognize human gestures, poses and biometrical features in real time, such as: * Gecko, a feature tracker that tracks an individual and measures their biometric features, * Flamenco, a piece of software for finger and hand gesture control, * Carnival SDK, software for

and

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

, which allows users to see and use their hands in virtual interfaces. Gestigon's solutions are based on skeleton recognition. Their software recognizes body parts in 3D data to make the recognition faster and more accurate.

References

{{reflist Middleware Virtual reality companies Augmented reality Software companies of Germany Companies based in Schleswig-Holstein Gesture recognition Software companies established in 2011 Companies based in Sunnyvale, California German companies established in 2011