Prime Sense Gets $20.4M for Gestural Interface Technology

Prime Sense announced today that it had raised raising $20.4 million in a second round of funding led by Canaan Partners with participation from existing investors Gemini Israel Funds (who also provided the seed funding) and Genesis Partners. Prime Sense is developing "technology that enables real time, low cost three dimensional machine vision" with the aim of  letting users "interact with consumer devices in a simple and intuitive way." It lists as potential applications video games, consumer electronics, training, and communication. There's no specific mention of virtual worlds, but the sort of potential applications and technology seem like they could make Prime Sense a potential competitor (or partner) for Handsfree 3D's Second Life interface. In fact, Mitch Kapor has mentioned hearing about several Israeli companies (Prime Sense is based out of Tel Aviv) developing 3D cameras as part of his inspiration for Handsfree 3D.

They've also got similar motivations

"In the years since the mouse was introduced, the complexity of consumer devices has evolved dramatically," Prime Sense President Aviad Maizels said in a statement. "In comparison, user interfaces remained under developed. Prime Sense's technology propels user interfaces straight into the future. This new investment constitutes a strong expression of confidence in the company's team, who have worked tirelessly to develop a series of technological breakthroughs to transform our vision into reality."

The money will help move the company from development to sales, which means, hopefully, more and more consumer-level gestural interface devices should be hitting the market soon. As a part of the deal, Izhar Shay, a partner at Canaan, has joined the company's Board of Directors.

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[PIDT]

PIDT is a gestural interface for texting with one hand, five fingers and six simple gestures. see www.pidt.org or http://pidt.blogspot.com