Canesta, a company which specialises in 3D sensing technology and 3D gestures used for natural user interfaces (NUI), has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with Microsoft. This agreement will see the company’s products, technology, intellectual property, customer contracts, as well as other resources being acquired by the Redmond-based company.

 

“This is very exciting news for the industry,” stated Jim Spare, Canesta president and CEO. “There is little question that within the next decade we will see natural user interfaces become common for input across all devices. With Microsoft’s breadth of scope from enterprise to consumer products, market presence, and commitment to NUI, we are confident that our technology will see wide adoption across many applications that embody the full potential of the technology.”

 

Canesta is responsible for a leading single chip 3D sensing technology platform and has accumulated a large body of intellectual property, with 44 patents already granted to the company and more on file. Some of the company’s tech is utilised within user input mechanisms and platforms, including the Nintendo Wii, Apple’s iPhone and the Sony Playstation EyeToy camera accessory.

 

The financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but the deal is expected to be completed before the end of this year. This latest Redmond acquisition is the first following Microsoft’s announcement of its record first-quarter revenue of $16.2 billion for the quarter ended 30 September 2010.