Apple looking to acquire company behind Kinect technology

Apple seems to be in a mood to have some control over the motion-control business. According to Israeli newspaper Calcalist, the Cupertino-based company is looking to acquire Israeli-based Primesense, a company better known for its work with Microsoft to include its technology, chips and design in the first ever Kinect for the Xbox 360. This could be a hint towards Apple’s plans of including motion-control technology in its later products.

In the past, Apple had acquired another Israeli company—Anobit—in a $400 million deal. Anobit is a flash storage company.

Primesense is more commonly associated with technologies revolving around gaming and the living room, such as the popular Kinect. If Apple does acquire the company, it would be a big change in direction for Primesense, since Apple doesn’t have much of a presence in gaming apart from iOS.

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In the past, Primesense has worked with Asus to provide 3D sensing technology for the WAVI Xtion PC. It has also worked on some 3D motion-controlled games and has collaborated with companies in all sorts of fields, including retial, robotics and healthcare.

Even now, Primesense’s sensors can be seen all over the place, especially in both smartphones and tablets. The company’s technology can also be seen in portable scanners capable of generating colour 3D models of interior spaces.

If Apple does acquire Primesense, this could open interesting new avenues for the former, especially regarding its general UI design on OS X and iOS. Maybe the day will come when we will be able to use competent voice and gesture controls on Macs and iPads.