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CANESTA, INC.
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BURLINGAME, CALIFORNIA – April 30, 2002 – At the Wireless Ventures Conference taking place here this week, Nazim Kareemi, president and CEO of Canesta, Inc., provided a glimpse of the "next important development" in wireless devices, particularly keyboard-challenged devices such as cell phones and PDAs that aspire to provide essential connectivity to Web-based services and information. Kareemi described Canesta's conception of a "projection keyboard" – built right into the device – that projects a full keyboard image onto an adjacent surface and detects the user's finger movements through electronic perception technology.
It turns out that Kareemi's vision is not such a stretch. Canesta's recently unveiled electronic perception technology, which "sight enables" ordinary electronic devices by means of a tiny 3-D sensor chip and software, was invented with just such applications in mind. According to Kareemi, several cellular device manufacturers are already working with Canesta with the intent of rolling out projection keyboard-equipped cell phones before next spring.
"A fully integrated projection keyboard with a standard complement of full-sized keys provides the best answer for cell phones, smartphones, PDAs or other mobile devices intended for use with value-added connectivity services," said Kareemi. "If I want to send email through my cell phone, I need the independence to be able to type as I am used to – not with my thumbs, and not through a number pad. What I don't need is additional complexity, such as a fold-up mechanical keyboard or other separate module to carry around, wire up, or lose, just to accomplish this."
Canesta's model, said Kareemi, is to incorporate a tiny 3-D image sensing chip and an image projection chip right into the mobile or wireless device. Consumers would simply position their phone or PDA in front of themselves, and type on a full-sized projection keyboard projected onto the table surface. The image sensing – or "electronic perception" – chip, peeking out a tiny "window" on the device, would track the consumer's finger movement in three dimensions and provide keystroke information to the device's processor. "This solution provides the functionality and convenience of a full-sized mechanical keyboard with absolutely no sacrifice in portability," Kareemi said.
Although Canesta has not yet announced the availability of specific chips, it expects to make further disclosures later this year. According to Kareemi, the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) that have been working with Canesta have been utilizing prototyping tools that emulate the behavior of the electronic perception chips. "We realized over three years ago that sight-enabling wireless devices with projection keyboards was an obvious application for electronic perception technology," he said, "and we have been diligently working on this application area ever since."
Canesta was recently granted a U.S. patent for several embodiments of its electronic perception technology, which is the world's first technology that can produce real-time, three-dimensional "depth maps" of the nearby environment utilizing a tiny CMOS sensor chip. Kareemi, who co-founded Canesta, is a Silicon Valley "serial" entrepreneur who founded the well-known PenWare, one of the very few successful pen-based computing ventures. Pen-based computing is exemplary of another breakthrough human-computer interface intended to provide users of personal electronic devices with convenience, freedom and independence.
In addition to projection keyboards, Canesta envisions other applications of its electronic perception technology in the wireless arena. These include projection notepads that track any pen, pencil or pen-like object, gestural interfaces for devices with inconvenient or ultra-small form factors or locations (such as wearable computers) and user identification and authentication through facial recognition. But the utility doesn't stop there; electronic perception technology will also make practical a wide number of sight-enabled applications in consumer games, premise security, automobiles, military-aerospace, medical, and many others diverse areas.
Canesta is the inventor of a revolutionary, low-cost electronic perception technology that enables ordinary electronic devices to perceive and react to nearby objects or individuals in real time.
When sight-enabled with Canesta's unique electronic perception chips and software that sense the environment as 3-dimensional moving images, consumer, automotive, industrial, and medical products will gain functionality and ease of use not possible in an era when electronics were blind.
Canesta was founded in April 1999, and is located in San Jose, CA. The company has filed or has been granted in excess of 20 patents. Investment to date exceeds $20 million, from Carlyle Venture Partners, Apax Partners (formerly Patricof & Co Ventures, Inc.), JP Morgan Partners (formerly Chase Capital Partners), TechFund Capital, and Thales Corporate Ventures (formerly Thomson-CSF Ventures.) Canesta has over 35 employees. Canesta's Web site: www.canesta.com
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