Microsoft To Acquire 3D Chipmaker Canesta

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Canesta Inc., which makes 3-D imaging chips, has agreed to be bought by Microsoft Corp. for an undisclosed amount.

The deal announced Friday comes less than a week before Microsoft is set to start selling Kinect, an add-on for Xbox 360 that can interpret players' body movements, using them to control what happens in the game. Kinect will allow people to play video games without having to mash buttons on a plastic controller.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft worked with another 3-D sensor company, PrimeSense, in building Kinect. It had also acquired 3DV, a PrimeSense competitor, but did not end up using its technology.

Canesta, based in Sunnyvale, said the acquisition is expected to close before the end of the year.

Comments

[jabailo]

12:52 AM on 11/02/2010

To the Cloud!

Uh, I mean 3-D Away.

Wait.

Don't Use your Phone any more...it'll make you crash your bike.

.....what was our theme today?!

[sweetsalad]

08:30 PM on 11/01/2010

Corporations are expanding but out of the United States. If Obama call their attention for creating the jobs in other countries, they call him a socialist. Voters need to understand that the republicans intend to ship all the jobs to other countries. http://www.digitalundivide.com

[rotorhead1871]

02:41 PM on 11/01/2010

sweet!!!!!

[Scent]

02:31 PM on 11/01/2010

Another headline today was "The Economy Is Growing -- But Jobs Aren't Following"

And here is why:

Microsoft will export all jobs to a thrid world country. The profits will not be subject to american taxes. The money to pay for their stupidly expensive junk will go to the share holders and when all is said and done the number of jobs dropped, wages got cut, and services got REAL bad.

BUT

The parasites got richer which means the economy is growing.

[PenguinLinux]

11:12 AM on 11/01/2010

SWEEEET!! We can now see Windows BSODs in 3-D - Guess that would make then BSO3-D ??)

[jgeurian21]

11:48 AM on 11/01/2010

So sad that you lack the knowledge on how to correctly utilize a PC. I mean I am no expert either, but in the past 6 years or so as a system builder I had 1 BSOD when I accidentally plugged the wrong PSU plug into my GPU and that was about 2 years ago.

[PenguinLinux]

12:49 PM on 11/01/2010

"So sad that you lack the knowledge on how to correctly utilize a PC."

What do you think I run Linux on?

[JonnyTruant]

02:52 AM on 11/02/2010

I haven't seen a BSOD in years. Last time I did was when my graphics card died and crashed my system. I don't think 3D would work in that situation.

[rtb61]

04:11 AM on 11/01/2010

They are after the amateur fitness market after Wii clobbered them in that area. Catch not that much game money in that market but a few games and that's pretty much it. They will have to be very careful of the frustration factor in the controller proves to be imprecise, it will likely put off the real games.
Here's a hint, RF tags fitted to actual sporting equipment and a directional detector, far more accurate and better for training as people would be training with their actual tennis rackets, golf clubs, fishing rods, fencing foils, squash rackets etc. Of course volley balls and bowling bowls etc. would be far to risky without impact resistant equipment and even with that fire arms might be really problematic for your typical red neck who is often not really aware of when their weapons are unloaded or loaded (hint each and every time you pick it up treat it as loaded.until you visual check it).

[garder54]

07:52 AM on 11/01/2010

Took me a while to figure out what you were trying to say. But you mention a controll that could be "imprecise." There is no controller. Your body is used to control what happens in the game, not a controller like the Wii or PS3.

[rtb61]

11:40 AM on 11/01/2010

The Kinect is the controller, you activate via body motion, the catch is M$ has a history of releasing way early, with questionable precision, how accurate are equipment motions ie. minor deflections of your wrist has a major impact on the tilt (ball direction) and angle (spin) for a tennis racquet changes considerable which is why it is better to focus on the tennis racquet (reality) than on the body motion of the player (um yeah sure). So stick on 4 RF tags and you can accurately locate the tennis racquet in 3 dimensional space were as monitoring body motions is going to provide very inaccurate information.
In this case the RF tags are not the controller the controller just monitors there location in three dimensional space to accurate reflect the players 'hit' of the virtual ball.

[jesserocket]

10:16 AM on 11/01/2010

actually there is nothing stopping you from holding a racket or golf club or bat while you play kinect you can use the item of your choice you dont need a special tag , it doesnt have to be seen by the game but you will be using it in a more natural way while you play

[Autumn Rain]

11:15 PM on 10/31/2010

Microsoft is shopping, just like Google and other big companies.
http://www.quotes-safari.com/

[rotorhead1871]

02:44 PM on 11/01/2010

correcto.....MS has the $$$$$BBBBBBB$$$$$ to spend, and they are going to further their footprint.

[gevan]

09:09 PM on 10/31/2010

I'm left wondering why Microsoft hasn't snapped up Micronesia yet.

[rotorhead1871]

02:43 PM on 11/01/2010

the military ..er...the USG..already owns a big chunk....and they aint selling....

[jweider]

09:09 PM on 10/31/2010

"an add-on for Xbox 360 that can interpret players' body movements, using them to control what happens in the game."
First they copied the GUI from Apple. They copied most of IE from Netscape. Now they want to copy the Wii from Nintendo.
Will Microsoft ever have an original idea?

[Michael Johnson 1]

11:41 PM on 10/31/2010

Actually, they aren't copying the Wii. Motion control has already been around for a while. Also, this is a totally different concept. With the Wii you use a controller to interface with the device. With kinect, you use your body to interface with it.

[redmaple]

04:23 AM on 11/01/2010

They didn't copy the GUI from Apple. Apple copied the GUI from Xerox.

[rotorhead1871]

02:46 PM on 11/01/2010

and put it on their stuff and MS licensed it...thats how they got to windows...landmark lawsuit between apple and MS....we know who won.

[Robert David Steele]

08:07 PM on 10/31/2010

It would certainly be great if Microsoft has a strategy that would scale to the five billion poor, and stop jerking around the edges.

My own vision for Microsoft, a single powerpoint slide, can be seen at:
http://www.phibetaiota.net/2010/10/graphic-one-vision-for-the-future-of-microsoft/

[jesserocket]

10:20 AM on 11/01/2010

who cares

[rotorhead1871]

02:47 PM on 11/01/2010

wrong thread...thats the red cross you are looking for...

[hypnotoad72]

08:01 PM on 10/31/2010

Another buyout. More layoffs to follow.

[JonnyTruant]

02:59 AM on 11/02/2010

Probability is that the company was 5 people large and they all had a stake in it. Most smaller tech companies are just a group of people with an idea and the expertise to make it good enough to sell to MS or another tech giant. That's how people make money in the tech world.

[mukTech]

07:49 PM on 10/31/2010

Ok