Apple buys PrimeSense - the company that helped develop Kinect

By Michael Archambault
published

Xbox Kinect – some people love it and other loath it. Whether or not you believe that the Xbox’s Kinect accessory is the future of human interaction and gaming or not, it is hard to argue away the amazing technology that is contained within the unit. This technology was actually designed by an Israeli company called PrimeSense – a company that Apple has just bought.

According to Israeli news site, Calcalist, the acquisition of PrimeSense by Apple Inc. has finalized in a deal worth $345 million. There were previous rumors that Apple might gobble up the company for a little over a quarter of a million dollars, and it seems those rumors were true.

Before you worry about the future of Kinect on the Xbox platform, the second generation accessory for the upcoming unit was designed in house by Microsoft. So, what does Apple plan to do with PrimeSense? Rumors are pointing to possible motion-tracking and gesture based interaction with iOS device.

Apple appears to be following the path of Microsoft a bit – let’s see where it takes them.

Source: Calcalist; via iMore

78 Comments
  • Phirst! Apple will act as if they invented it.
  • +820
  • And they'll be backed up by the ipress. Sickening.
  • +920
  • Too many people have heard of/have a kinect. They were so popular when they came out a Christmas or two ago, they were really hard to find. Its even on talk shows. Ppl will remember.
  • At least Apple will make it 'cool' enough for people to sit up and take notice of the kinect! All Microsoft has to do is try and stay ahead of the game!!!
  • Takes them to their death bed tbh.
  • Bet they will use this on their Apple TV set. To be launched "this year" surely. Apple really stands no chance in the living room, I can't see why they even bother.
  • As long as there are women, girls, homosexuals and metrosexuals with disposal income there will be a place for Apple. Not there's anything wrong with that.
  • Sad but true
  • Why does being gay automatically mean you have a preference for apple products?  Please, do explain.
  • It's just what I've noticed.  I'm no social scientist or anything and there are always exceptions to any rule.  What have you noticed, assuming you know other gay people?
  • I'm just saying that your views couldn't be more wrong (the majority of apples customers are 35+ year old hetero males based on surveys), and they attempt to stereotype certain groups.  Tech is already bad enough with fanboy wars between brands, so lets not start including stereotypes about gender and sexuality in it as well.
  • I don't see what the big deal is. I'm a 35+ hetero male and don't take offense to the survey results and ask where my 35+ year-old male hetero handbook is. Demographics is just interesting to me. It doesn't bother me that you're gay and/or like or dislike Apple products.
  • If you can't see what was wrong or offensive with that statement you made, then I'll just leave it at that.
  • Typical homosexual male:  passive-agressive and overly emotional.  LOL.  Just kidding; don't bite my head off.  Anyway, I will bump you off of your high horse by saying there is no 'wrong' or 'right', just different perspectives.
  • No, I didn't feel like shaming you as a bigot, but you just did a good job of doing that yourself.
  • I think you need to look up the definition of bigot and then relax. Like I said earlier, I have nothing against you, or other homosexuals, metrosexuals, women, or girls for that matter. I think it perfectly normal for a person to try to make sense of his world just for the sake of curiosity of human nature. Anyway, I will refrain from such topics in the future. It is not my goal to rile anyone up (well, maybe a little bit...)
  • Bigot: a person who is or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices. I think I was spot on. I could also go with homophobe if you prefer since your comments regarding apple products and gays center on stereotypes, but its fun watching you paint yourself into a corner with your own words. Just because you say you don't have a problem with something, doesn't make that true when you type the exact opposite. Its like the people who always say "I'm nor racist, but.." and they proceed to type a racist comment. Anyways, good luck to you in the future.
  • I'm not letting you off the hook. Show me where, in my words, I expressed any level of intolerance or devotion to my opinion. In fact, I offered for you to tell me about your own experience, but you didn't.
  •  "As long as there are women, girls, homosexuals and metrosexuals with disposal income there will be a place for Apple." You stereotyped all apple customers as only being gays, men lacking masculinity (metrosexuals- lolwut? it's not 2004) and women.  I cited that surveys of apples customer demographics (facts, not opinions) have shown that in fact it's the opposite (35 year old hetero males), but you doubled down on sticking with your opinion. (devotion to your own opinion) "Typical homosexual male:  passive-agressive and overly emotional." Showed your rather cavemen like views on gays there by again stereotyping all gay men as being "passive-agressve and overly emotional". (intolerance)
  • You have a case that I am wrong, but not that I am a bigot. I haven't fact-checked your assertion. Even so, if it becomes true that most people that buy Apple products are 35+ hetero males, it could be that they are mostly metrosexuals like I offered up. If I am wrong then that's fine. I really have no stake in it and can certainly change my tune. It's simply what I see around me.
  • "You have a case that I am wrong, but not that I am a bigot. I haven't fact-checked your assertion. Even so, if it becomes true that most people that buy Apple products are 35+ hetero males, it could be that they are mostly metrosexuals like I offered up." lolwut? There is just so much wrong with that statement I don't even know where to start.  I honestly did not think someone could be that ignorant, intolerant, and so deadset on a wrong idea... about a brand of technology. If you still honestly think the only reason people buy Apple products is that they are gays, heterosexual men who you believe are lacking masculinity (metrosexuals as you called them) and women/little girls, then you're just a sad, sad person with very wrong and offensive views.  The worst part of this entire conversation is you've made me defend Apple, a company I dislike on a personal level, but not stupid or ignorant enough to insult the sexuality and gender of its entire customer based.
  • This is the second time you have mocked metrosexuals.  And you admit that you dislike Apple.  You must be a BIGOT, an APPLEPHOBE, and a METROPHOBE.  See, I can play your game, too.  It's really easy.  I never said any disparaging remarks against anyone.  I did make a stereotypical joke in good nature.  BFD.  There rest you made up all in your head.
  • "See, I can play your game, too." Sad, completely and utterly sad that you think it's a game.  You think there's nothing wrong with any of the the you have said, your offensive views that are in plain text, and that somehow you feel you're being persecuted.  You're beyond hope.
  • LOL.  OK, I guess we will leave it at that.
  • Just please stop. You've dug yourself into a hole way too deep and trying to turn the tables isn't making you look any better. You insulted the gay community. Apologize and log off.
  • The hole is deep indeed, comments are like 20 pixels wide by now.   We must keep digging.
  • I dropped this hours ago. If you two want me to continue I'm happy to oblige. Otherwise, let's all move on.
  • You probably could have saved yourself trouble and just have said people that go to Starbucks. Mac use cuts across every demographic as long as they head to Starbucks.
  • I don't know many gay people, but I'm gay myself, and I (obviously) am a big Microsoft fanboy. But of the very few gay people I know, it actually seems split into thirds: 1/3 iOS, 1/3 Windows Phone and the last third have no modern mobile OS (Android getting the cold shoulder, so it seems). Of course, I'm lumping in my lesbian friends with the gay group, so that could be skewing the data... I'll observe this more closely over the next few days, I'm actually curious as to whether or not there's a correletion. Of course, one would think, if there was any correlation at it, it'd be in favor of the Metro UI, seeing as it's fun and colorful? :)
  • The interesting part there is that a third of the people you know use WP. The numbers are way lower in my circle, probably about one in twenty, just guessing. I was on a conference call today and heard the WP new text chime from somebody and couldn't believe it. I thought it must have been my own, but it wasn't. Then I heard it again!
  • Oh, I referring specifically to my LGBT circle, outside of that, it drops off dramatically. I am seeing more Windows Phones out in the halls of my school today (saw an unmistakable yellow Lumia 920 in the hallway today), so their numbers are rising. Still dwarfed when compared to Apple's death grip on my school's populous, but the numbers are slowly but surely rising.
  • That's not how statistics work...
  • Never said it was scientific, did I? No, it's not meant to be proper. My school has 2,500 people, more than half of with I'm never going to interact with, even in just passing in the hallways, due to how big the school is. I'm not keeping track of anything other than rough counts in my head. It obviously won't be conclusive for anything, I'm just doing it for my own personal curiosity. I don't plan on publishing my findings in a science journal or anything like that. After all, have you never done that before? Anything? Anything where you just observe people or something about them and very roughly collect some very rough data, just for your own sake? I personally think it's fun, it's always interesting to see what you find, properly done or not. :)
  • But don't forget that thanks to us digital music distribution, multitouch smartphones, touch optimized tablets interfaces, decently built laptops with long battery life and high DPI displays are the norm now. You're welcome.
  • I'm still confused.  I can't find anywhere in my "homosexual handbook" (volume 3) where it says I'm supposed to automatically like Apple.  Can you tell me which page that's on?  I think I'm doing this gay thing wrong since I like MS products.
  • Didn't you get the memo? Gay Agenda page 457, third paragraph.
  • For the gay's, it's the Spouse Acceptance Factor... : "As early as 1988, the term Spouse Acceptance Factor (SAF) was suggested as a term uniformly and equally applicable to heterosexual, gay, and lesbian couples."
  • *Citation needed. Gotta love dem social sciences.
  • lolwat?  There's always someone who ruins the joke and turns it into political nuttery.  You do realize Rubios and I were poking fun at the somewhat childish comment made earlier in the thread...
  • So you're a comedian? Why don't you lighten up then... there are some truth to the WAF. Sorry if that ruins your joke. Not.
  • I actually do not like digital music distribution, multitouch smartphones, or touch optimized tablets interfaces, for whatever that's worth.
  • Yeah, it's a known fact. It's the Wife Acceptance Factor. Check it out: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_Acceptance_Factor
  • >fact I do not think that word means what you think it means.
  • Wow. Just wow.
  • To be honest, i do really agree with you. And some big company and leaders who are really fan of Apple.
    Which is leading people to wrong way with products from Apple. 
  • That's why I like Asian pears.
  • Why Asian pears?  Are you racist?  And why pears?  Why not apples and grapes?  Are you a fruitist?  And why not any other kinds of food?  Are you a foodist?  And why just foods instead of other forms of matter?  And matter and not anti-matter?  You are a bigot!!!! This is for my good friend wapoz...
  • Actually, it seems some homosexual people like Nokia also. I know two, maybe 3. So do hertosexual people. There is not really any 'gay' phone company. :P hip, maybe...
  • Well, I'm a computer science student and around 90% of my classmates are males, and guess what? Almost 3/4 of the class has a MacBook and/or an iPhone (I have none of them).  There are 200+ students in my class by the way, and something like 20 girls (Less than 5 actually owning an Apple product)
  • Time to get this tech into the mobile market before Apple does. Don't forget to market the crap out of it as Apple will do so....
  • I agree. Apple always likes to make consumers think they created any technology available.
  • Bullshit. That's the diehard fanboys that think that. They popularize and revolutionize technology that already exists (i.e. the iPad). They don't claim to have invented the technology they ship. If anything they reinvent it. Of course it would be nice if they did that more often instead of pumping out "updated" versions of the exact same hardware every year...
  • Sorry to say you are are wrong its not just the die hard fans but the informed and naive consumer as well. Also your assessment I imagine is based on those around you (as is the norm for such comparisons).
     
  • If said consumer is naïve and believes this then they are not informed. And it's a pretty fair assessment. You can dislike Apple but you can't deny just how revolutionary the iPad was. Obviously there has been a major lack of innovation with many Apple products since the iPad, but nevertheless the iPad was still very important.
  • well didn't it leak recently that nokia is working on a 3D gesture screen thing... like samsungs on the s4 only it sounded a bit better... and with the new kinect 2 being fully inhouse and Nokia being bought i would say if and when Nokia/Microsoft do this they will be best in class... Nokia's camera tech can only help... front facing 3Mp with OIS with a super high resolution infrared projector and sensor boosted with the kinect 2 software, could unlock your phone with same face scan the xbox one does, means a picture wouldn't work either because it would know its flat
  • Hmm lets see what happens.
  • The same people who hated Microsoft for bundling Kinect with every Xbox 1 will be all over iMove...
  • My friend you are soooooooo correct. All the isheeps
  • Yup, people like them (have too many to count at work and all of them have the gold 5s lol) are still mouthing of ios7 as the next best thing since sliced bread but took the piss out of WP for being flat and skeumorphism was where MS should have headed in the first place.
  • Definitely a little over that quarter million mark ;-)
  • Yeah, funny. Just a little. Ha.
  • Haha, pocket change for the world's "most innovative and magical" company. ;) /S
  • PrimeSense approached Apple before Kinect was created and apparently Apple didn't think there was enough value in a company like them to work together. Now that motion tracking is becoming more of a "mainstream" (not really) feature, they just bought someone who knew what they were doing instead of starting from the bottom. Sure, the next commerical will be about a revolutionary new concept in human interaction with electronic devices... iKinekt!
  • Coming soon...Apple iBoxStation Gaming Console?
  • Kinect is terrible for gaming.
  • Agreed. My guess is we'll first be seeing Kinect-comparable technology integrated into Macs and maybe iPhones in the future. I doubt Apple would enter the core gaming market. They already dominate the casual one.
  • It was pretty great for Dance Central.
  • Quarter of a "billion" dollars
  • I hope MS releases Kinect2 SDK and Kinect2 for Windows as soon as possible.  One of the great advantages with the original kinect was OpenSource drivers, which allowed all kinds of cool hacks.  These early drivers even allowed pointcloud recording, mesh reconstruction, and motion capture.   The new Kinect2 looks like a huge step forward in speed and quality.  Can't wait to get it running on Windows!
  • So what does this mean with ms? Would they have to pay for the usage of the technology from apple!?
  • No Kinect 2 was built up from ground up, however I wonder what they plan to do about the old kinect I bet it will be discontinued shortly :P
  • In that category MS is far ahead of Apple. Just like iWorks / Office.
  •    Honestly, I think the technology would show up in the streaming tv devices before it shows up on their computers/tablets/phones.
  • I would like Microsoft to create a front facing camera that was like the Kinect for their third gen surface products, along with new windows phones post Nokia acquisition. On that note I would like to see them add the Xbox one wireless controller tech into the surface as an added bonus to those who buy the surface over the other OEM offerings. Its not a huge benefit, but some gamers would appreciate not using their USB for the wireless dongle.
  • The new iKinect will set the world on fire as a brand new apple invention. Such a shame MS didn't buy them up, they would make the purchase price in interest payments per day for the huge chunk of coin they have sitting in the bank, coffee money for MS and even less for apple
  • I hope MSFT sues them six ways from Sunday so they never get any product out the door. John