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Microsoft Confirms 3DV IP Acquisition

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

June 24, 2009

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Moshe Lichtman, Microsoft corporate vice president and head of Israel R&D, has confirmed that the company has acquired “the intellectual property" of motion sensing camera technology firm 3DV Systems.

Speaking at the centre’s annual press conference, Lichtman said that dozens of new employees were recruited after the purchase, reports Globes.

In February Microsoft was linked to a buyout of 3DV. A month later 3DV’s holding company Elron Electronics announced that it had “entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of substantially all of its assets” to an unnamed third party.

3DV has been designing its camera technologies for some time; its ZCams are said to be a far more accurate version of Sony’s EyeToy, due to the fact that the devices can interpret how far away a subject is from its lens.

Lichtman wouldn’t comment on suggestions that Microsoft’s Project Natal was developed based on 3DV’s technology, other than to say "when there's something to tell, we'll do so."

ArronC07's picture
On June 24th ArronC07 said:

I'm really bored of Natal.

jazzbrownie's picture
On June 24th jazzbrownie said:

I'm really tired of motion-sensing related news. It's just kind of lame.

Dan_Chippendale's picture
On June 24th Dan_Chippendale said:

why is that Dr bloke from Lost playing golf on a satnav?

Mikail Yazbeck's picture
On June 24th Mikail Yazbeck said:

Pardon for saying this, but this news is almost a year old and of course 3DV was purchased to develop Natal, it only makes sense, not sure why they just wouldn't be transparent about it all.

DubsTF's picture
On June 24th DubsTF said:

Microsoft is trying to pretend that they developed Project Vapor in-house and only purchased 3DV to cover themselves from patent infringement, AS IF ANYBODY BELIEVES THEM.

pdumas's picture
On June 25th pdumas said:

And what if the reason was 3DV was a skilled team in a very specific field (giving you a chance to be first and only on the market) ?
And what if the reason was Sony or Nintendo trying to buy them as well (and threaten your exclusive breakthrough) ?
And what if the reason was 3DV owned exclusive patents (that would prevent you from going ahead) ?
And so on...

You and I don't know enough to call them stupid

dreamhunk's picture
On June 24th dreamhunk said:

well i could have told you so.