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Apple reportedly purchases PrimeSense, the Israeli 3D body sensor firm behind Microsoft Kinect for $345M

According to Israeli publication Calcalist.co.il, Apple has purchased PrimeSense, the company behind the original Microsoft Kinect’s technology somewhere near a valuation in the $345M range. According to the report, a delegation of PrimeSense senior executives visited Apple’s engineering offices in recent days. The purchase would bolster Apple’s living room TV interface offerings and allow Apple to add controls with body movements and hand gestures to its products.

Calcalist reported in July that Apple was mulling a purchase for somewhere in the neighborhood of $280M.  PrimeSense had issued a denial that it was in talks to be bought by Apple. As we know with past history surrounding these type of matters, company denials don’t often mean much in the grand scheme of things.

Apple purchased Israeli Flash chip optimization company Anobit in late 2011 for $400M+, also originally reported by Calcalist. The company now functions as one of Apple’s R&D centers in-country…

We’ve heard previously that Apple is working on such 3D gesture interface and may have already been licensing IP from the Israeli firm and/or its competitors. At $350M, Apple may believe it’s better to own this IP and technology rather than let others have access to it in the future.

Apple has its own patents on similar 3D technology and has been working on its own gesture-controlled OS (below).

Microsoft used the sensor technology that PrimeSense developed for its original Kinect, previously known as Project Natal, but has since replaced the technology with its own in-house technology for 3D body mapping and movement.

PrimeSense went on to work with Asus on its WAVI Xtion living room home media controller (video) and has since shrunk chips down to be used in tablets and phones (another area of Apple interest)

PrimeSense was founded in 2005 and is a founding member of OpenNI, an industry-led non-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of Natural Interaction (NI) devices, applications and middleware.

Update: PrimeSense issued the following “no comment”:

“PrimeSense is the leading 3D technology in the market. We are focused on building a prosperous company while bringing 3D sensing and Natural Interaction to the mass market in a variety of markets such as interactive living room and mobile devices. We do not comment on what any of our partners, customers or potential customers are doing and we do not relate to rumors or recycled rumors.”

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Comments

  1. Elad Ben Hamo (@Elads_B) - 10 years ago

    Great company, good luck!

  2. t3d (@robotstorm) - 10 years ago

    They took the Apple logo off the back of the iPad she’s holding.

    • Dimitri Kyriakis - 10 years ago

      They have to remove any logo of a electronic or anything else if they do not pay for the rights or get the rights to show it. They do this with Android tablets / Microsoft Surface tablets & anything else.

  3. msuthafanoor - 10 years ago

    Will apple make a gaming console with this technology

    Regards, Musthafa Noor Musthafanoorapple.blogspot.com

    >

  4. James Katt - 10 years ago

    Note that Apple already has a patent on the 3D Machine Vision technology used by Microsoft’s XBox Kinect.

    Since Microsoft has a license to all of Apple’s technology with the stipulation to not copy Apple, Microsoft and Apple are getting along.

    With this purchase, Apple further controls the 3D machine vision technology. It may thus use it in future products.

  5. Amit Eliyahu - 10 years ago

    And yet Apple products in Israel cost more than double than in the USA :((
    my macbook pro 13″ 2010 which was priced in the US at 1100$, cost me 8000 NIS which are 2270$!!!, and my iPhone 4s cost my 4500 NIS which are 1260$!! and that was before plan :(((

    • weakguy - 10 years ago

      How $hit! What about other companies like HTC and Sony? Are they cheaper or just as expensive?

  6. grantwall (@grantwall) - 10 years ago

    If you watch the video provided, 1:47 shows an interesting use case that I think would work well if integrated with iBeacons.

  7. varera (@real_varera) - 10 years ago

    this news was reported the last year. both declined to comment that time. some said why should apple buy a firm that was rejected by microsoft…

  8. dkpalash (@PalashDk) - 10 years ago

    I like it….Goo ahead….best of luck

  9. godrifle - 10 years ago

    Hopefully Apple hires the same ad agency that made that stellar story come to life.

  10. Robert Gama - 10 years ago

    Funny, I just saw another company today that just launched motion capture using Kinect for game developers who use Unity. Is Google going to buy them next? :D
    http://youtu.be/X_aEFKNDTYw

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Avatar for Seth Weintraub Seth Weintraub

Publisher and Editorial Director of the 9to5/Electrek sites.


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