What's superior to a shiny new Snapdragon, blazing all sorts of benchmarking trails in your next tablet and / or smartphone? Why, a Snapdragon with a pinch of IP from GestureTek, of course! Qualcomm has today announced its intentions to acquire "certain assets" from GestureTek, a long-standing developer of gesture recognition technology. We've seen the aforementioned outfit touch the mobile (and not-so-mobile) realm before, but now it looks like it'll be more aggressively touching devices with Qualcomm silicon. It's a strange move, indeed, but it could be one that signals a shift in the way chip makers are looking out for themselves. OEMs have long tried to skin their Android devices in a way that'll breed loyalty to a brand (rather than an OS), but loyalty to a CPU? According to Qually (yeah, what of it?), the buy will give it access to "key engineering resources," and while GestureTek will maintain "other assets in continuation of its gesture-controlled public display and digital signage business," we suspect the consumer-facing aspects will soon have a new master. We're told that the tech will be woven into current and next-gen Snapdragon processors, but only time will tell what sort of seamless wizardry will result. Hope your digits are ready.
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Qualcomm Acquires Gesture Recognition Assets from GestureTek
SAN DIEGO – July 25, 2011 – Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced that it has acquired certain assets from GestureTek, a developer of gesture recognition technology. A leader in the gesture recognition field, GestureTek has more than 25 years of experience implementing gesture-based technologies in mobile devices, entertainment facilities, healthcare systems, retail locations, and public and private venues. The acquisition gives Qualcomm ownership of certain intellectual property assets related to gesture recognition, as well as key engineering resources. GestureTek is retaining other assets in continuation of its gesture-controlled public display and digital signage business.
"Applications processors are enabling a range of new ways for consumers to interface with their home entertainment and mobile devices," said Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president and group president, Qualcomm. "Our acquisition of key technology and assets from GestureTek will strengthen Qualcomm's smartphone product portfolio and enable our customers to launch products with new and compelling user experiences."
Gesture recognition technology will be integrated into Qualcomm's current and next-generation Snapdragon™ processors, giving OEMs the capability to produce smartphones, tablets and home entertainment devices with user interfaces based on natural human gestures.
