Exclusive – Omek Interactive, a provider of tools that enables companies to incorporate gesture recognition and full body tracking into their applications and devices, has secured $7 million in financing in a round led by Intel Capital, TechCrunch has learned. The Series C round brings the company’s total funding raised to nearly $14 million.
Omek’s Beckon technology converts the raw depth map data from most major 3D cameras into an awareness of people and their movements or positions in front of the camera, enabling them to be converted into commands that control hardware or software.
The technology lets companies, ranging from consumer electronics and computer manufacturers, games and application developers, ad agencies and digital signage companies to videoconferencing and telepresence providers, create gesture and body tracking interfaces (often called NUIs) like the ones popularized by Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation Move.
Omek says it will use the investment to expand its product and technology teams, develop new products for specific target markets, and extend its business development and technical support presence in key customer regions.
The company’s partners include Lenovo’s Eedoo (Omek provides the software that powers the company’s brand new game console), PMD and Panasonic, among others.
