Canesta Developing 'Project Natal Killer'For PC

Canesta is developing a "Project Natal killer" for the PC, laptops, and other devices.

As Tech Radar states, touch is, like, so yesterday. Motion sensing is just totally rad now (wait, that's the wrong decade, sorry), and now it's coming to the PC and laptops by way of Canesta's "Project Natal killer" technology. Earlier today, the company revealed the motion-sensing project by announcing that it raised an additional $16 million to boost the overall development. A large chunk of that money comes from Quanta Computer, the world's largest maker of laptops.

But according to the company, its plans don't stop at desktops and laptops. "Canesta has invented a family of tiny CMOS 3-D "camera" chips that can provide a real-time, 3-D "depth map" of the surrounding area to PCs, consumer electronics devices such as televisions, videogames, or smartphones," Canesta said. "The technology enables revolutionary 3-D user experiences that dramatically improve device functionality and convenience, and are just plain fun to use."

VentureBeat adds to the report, indicating that the chips actually lets the cameras "see" moving objects. The camera detects the user's movements and then calculates exactly where they are. Canesta's system then translates the detected motion into commands for whatever electronic device is in use. This means that users can control a PC without touching it; switching TV channels could be as easy as waving a hand.

"The emergence of 3-D ‘natural' interfaces in PCs--such as 'touchless' gesture controls--as well as other immersive applications, has been inevitable," commented Jim Spare president and CEO of Canesta.