GestureTek Named a Top Innovator in the 2009 GSMA Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition - Americas Tournament
Company’s gesture based mobile user interface and practical applications to be showcased
Sunnyvale, CALIFORNIA, May 28, 2008 – GestureTek Mobile – multiple award winner and inventor of the world’s first gesture-controlled mobile user interface and gaming engine – today announced that it has been selected as a Top Innovator in the 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition - Americas Tournament.
GestureTek has been named as one of three Top Innovators in the ‘Most Innovative Mobile Application in a Vertical Market’ category. In total, 15 Top Innovators from five categories will compete for the title of ‘GSMA Mobile Innovation Global Finalist’ at the Mobile Innovation Marketplace - Americas event that is taking place in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 3rd and 4th, 2008. The Global Finalist from the Americas leg will then move on to compete against other Finalists from other tournament locations. One overall winner will be selected as the ‘GSMA Mobile Innovation Global Award Champion’ at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, 2009.
In Atlanta, GestureTek Mobile will showcase its patented EyeMobile® Engine to an elite panel of mobile operators, equipment vendors, investors and media. The company will also host a booth, where attendees will be treated to a demonstration of GestureTek Mobile’s new motion-sensing mobile applications from its various development initiatives, which include web browsing, image view, map navigation and rapid text entry.
GestureTek’s EyeMobile Engine is a software-based natural user interface that enhances the experience for users of cell phones or personal digital assistants. With EyeMobile, virtually anything that can currently be done on a mobile device using conventional button presses can now be done simply by tilting, shaking, rocking or rolling the unit. Unlike handsets that use accelerometers, EyeMobile works with the existing hardware on any camera-enabled handset.
“We see the potential for our gesture-based user interface as even greater than our incredibly successful mobile gaming engine, and we’re committed to continually enhancing our offering to make it even more attractive to the mobile marketplace and to end users,” said Francis MacDougall, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer for GestureTek Inc.
With over 150 motion-sensing applications available on the NTT DoCoMo network, EyeMobile availability on more than 100 million handsets on multiple platforms worldwide and a catalogue of turnkey games available for BREW, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Java, GestureTek leads the world in the deployment of gesture-based mobile user interaction.
“By developing applications such as Internet Browsers, picture viewers, map applications and rapid text entry applications, GestureTek is leading the way to a fully gestural touch-free user interface for all camera-enabled handsets, fully competitive with the higher-cost implementation provided by the iPhone’s touch system,” said MacDougall.
GestureTek’s EyeMobile Engine is currently available for Microsoft Windows Mobile handsets from manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung. It also supports Qualcomm BREW handsets, available from carriers such as Verizon, Alltel, Cellular South and KDDI. In Japan, EyeMobile is embedded in the NTT DoCoMo handset series 904i, 905i and 705i. Handsets from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, running Symbian S60 or UIQ, are also supported.
“GestureTek Mobile’s motion-controlled user interface and applications are growing in popularity with mobile gaming and application developers, mobile device manufacturers and carriers. Similar solutions are moving to laptops, consoles, PC’s and set top boxes. Without a doubt, we have reached a turning point in the move to ubiquitous gesture-based user interfaces for mobile devices,” said William Leckonby, CEO of GestureTek Inc.
GestureTek’s EyeMobile technology is an extension of the company’s core patented Video Gesture Control platform, which has been licensed and employed in applications ranging from retail displays and digital signage to the Microsoft Xbox 360, the Sony PlayStation 2 EyeToy and downloadable mobile games.
About GestureTek Mobile
GestureTek Mobile is a business unit of GestureTek Inc. and the inventor of the EyeMobile Engine. EyeMobile Engine is the world’s first software-only solution that provides cell phone users with the ability to interface with their mobile device using shaking, rocking or rolling motions, in order to play games, scroll menus, navigate maps, and browse photos and web pages. GestureTek’s video gesture control technology has been licensed by Microsoft, Sony, Hasbro and many mobile game and application developers. GestureTek was named the Overall Winner of the 2008 Global Mobile Innovation Award, presented at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. GestureTek also won a NATPE++ Top 12 Award for the Hottest Mobile Application. Games powered by the EyeMobile Engine have been recognized by pre-eminent awards programs, including: BREW 2006 Game Developer Awards “Best Up and Coming Application”; 2006 International Mobile Gaming Awards; IGN Editors Choice Award for Best Mobile Game, Best Puzzle Game and Most Innovative Design. GestureTek Mobile developed the first gesture-recognition software to be embedded on DoCoMo, Verizon and Windows Mobile 6 mobile devices, and is the first company to deploy a market-ready gesture-controlled mapping application on a cell phone. For more information visit www.gesturetekmobile.com
About GestureTek
GestureTek is the pioneer, patent-holder and world leader in gesture-recognition technologies and computer vision for information, presentation and entertainment systems. The company’s revolutionary video gesture control software lets users control interactive content, access information, manipulate special effects or immerse themselves in an interactive 3D virtual world - simply by moving their hands or body. In the past 20 years, GestureTek has delivered approximately 4,000 interactive displays, kiosks, exhibits, games and other interactive solutions for museums, science centers, location-based entertainment facilities, retail stores, tourism and hospitality venues, real estate presentation centers, corporate boardrooms and showrooms, television networks and game developers. GestureTek technology is also used by advertisers and marketers to make their digital signs and advertisements interactive and immersive. Healthcare organizations specializing in rehabilitation, sensory stimulation, activation and recreation also use GestureTek’s technology for virtual therapy. GestureTek’s clients include leading organizations and Fortune 500 companies such as CNN, NASA, BMW, Ford, Oracle, Intel, IBM, Federal Express, Autodesk and Panasonic. Software and patent licensees include Microsoft, Sony, Hasbro and NTT DoCoMo. GestureTek is headquartered in Silicon Valley, with additional offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Asia. Learn more at www.gesturetek.com or call (800) 315-1189.
For more information contact:
Patti Jordan, Director Marketing & Communications
GestureTek Inc. 416-340-9290 x 274
patti.jordan@gesturetek.com
Jo Moore Marini, Account Executive
SSPR, 719- 634-8055
jmoore@sspr.com