Canesta Secures Funding

Mass-market 3-D image sensors provider Canesta announced it has raised $16 million in additional capitalization.

Joining returning investors Carlyle Growth Partners, Hotung Venture Group, and Venrock are two new strategic investors - Quanta Computer, a manufacturer of notebook computers, and SMSC, a provider of smart mixed-signal connectivity solutions.

Canesta said it has invented a family of tiny CMOS 3-D "camera" chips that can provide a real-time, 3-D "depth map" of the surrounding area to PCs, consumer electronics devices such as televisions, videogames, or smartphones. Canesta noted the technology enables 3-D user experiences that improve device functionality and convenience.

"The emergence of 3-D 'natural' interfaces in PCs - such as 'touchless' gesture controls - as well as other immersive applications, has been inevitable," said Jim Spare president and CEO of Canesta. "While significant advances in computer processing and graphics continue to be made, consumers are proving increasingly indifferent to these as product differentiators. As a consequence, we are seeing an immense shift in focus by OEMs to radical innovation and improvement in the user experience, as a way of gaining competitive advantage."

Moreover, Spare said, current breakaway products in the mobile space that utilize multi-touch, and market-changing products in gaming that incorporate accelerometers for positional inputs, provide a sneak preview of what will be possible with Canesta-based 3-D natural interfaces.

"We are on the verge of a decade of innovation in human interfaces," said Spare.

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