Sources confirm Microsoft is buying 3DV Systems
A report surfaced last week that Microsoft was buying 3DV Systems, a company that makes motion-detection technology, for $35 million. My sources confirm that this is true.
Motion-detection will be big for the future direction of Microsoft, as it reacts to the Nintendo Wii, which revolutionized the game console industry with its motion detection technology.
As I've mentioned, buying 3DV would be the opening gambit in a next-generation user interface battle. It has bearing on the future video game console war, but also likely involve the future of gesture controls for the PC and TV.
3DV has been working on its ZCams for some time. These cameras function much like Sony's EyeToy, but they're much more accurate at detecting motion. That's because they're 3-D depth cameras, which sense how far away an object is from the camera. In the camera's black-and-white imaging, the closer objects are lighter and the more distant objects are darker. The camera captures the locations of objects many times per second, so it can detect an object and its trajectory, making it perfect for game control purposes.
