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SAN DIEGO, CA – July 28, 2003 – Canesta Inc., the world leader in electronic perception technology, is revealing today — for the first time in a public forum — underlying technical details of its revolutionary technology that enables everyday devices to "see". Electronic perception technology is a new, low-cost, single-chip imaging technology that creates three-dimensional images of the chip's nearby surroundings in real time. Technologists from around the world, who are attending the SIGGRAPH 2003 Conference In San Diego, CA this week, will hear never-before-disclosed details about Canesta's breakthroughs.
Until now, Canesta's electronic perception technology — which is in the process of being designed into a wide range of "everyday" devices by original equipment manufacturers in the U.S, Asia and Europe — has been discussed only in the most general terms. This week, however, two of Canesta's senior scientists, who were key in the invention of the technology, will discuss new technical and developmental details. These include: how it was possible to create small and power-efficient components for a problem that heretofore required complex, expensive setups with vast, available amounts of computing power; how the technology handles different lighting conditions, from strong ambient light to no ambient light at all; and how the "time of flight" of a photon can be determined using a sensor created on a standard, CMOS semiconductor fabrication process.
The SIGGRAPH Conference is presented annually by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group for Graphics, and is perhaps the most important nexus in the world for scientists, engineers, and business leaders interested in the latest advances in theoretical and applied computer graphics. Making the presentation for Canesta will be Dr. Cyrus Bamji, Canesta's chief technology officer, and Dr. Carlo Tomasi, Canesta's software architect. Bamji, with five degrees from MIT, has focused on the semiconductor device physics issues; Dr. Tomasi, also associate professor of computer science at Duke University, is one of the world's foremost experts on computer vision systems and is on the forefront of the next generations of such technology. He is responsible for the design of the sensing and interpretation system of Canesta's projection keyboard and has built both the hardware and software of its first working prototypes.
What is important about electronic perception technology is that it can be applied broadly, sight-enabling even inexpensive, consumer-oriented devices, as well as a wide range of instruments, equipment, vehicles, and machines. This is a contrast to today's complex and generally poor-performing vision systems that are expensive, large, and require a substantial amount of computing power.
The first application of electronic perception technology is the Canesta Keyboard Perception Chipset™. The chipset, when integrated into cell phones, PDA's or other mobile devices, enables such devices to project the image of a keyboard on a nearby flat surface, and then read the finger movements of a user who types on that image, as if it were a physical, full-sized keyboard. Canesta's electronic perception technology resolves the user's finger movements in real time into keystrokes electronically provided to the device.
Canesta believes future applications of electronic perception technology are virtually as broad as the imagination. They may include intelligent automobile airbag systems that can sense the size and position of an occupant to control deployment and avoid injury, a low-false-alarm security system that could detect the difference between an intruder and normal activity, such as a pet moving or child visiting the bathroom at night, or video and virtual reality games that would have no mechanical input whatsoever. The game would "see" the player and reacts to his actions.
First products using electronic perception technology are expected later this year.
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, consumer, automotive, industrial, military, 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 forty 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 40 employees.
