Entrepreneur Magazine

Bust a Move

Motion-sensing technology, meet the cell phone.

By Amanda C. Kooser
November 2007

Motion-sensing technology hit the mainstream with Nintendo's Wii gaming system, and now cell phones are getting in on the action. Motion-sensing devices that use accelerometers aren't new, but integrating them into cell phones has been slow going. Video gesture control technology pioneer GestureTek is taking a different tack with its EyeMobile® gesture recognition technology. It's essentially a software upgrade that uses a phone's camera to detect motion. That motion is translated into joystick-like functionality, menu scrolling and shuffling actions. The ubiquity of camera phones gives GestureTek's approach a leg up on hardware-based motion sensors.

"The idea of making a much more intuitive way to access the phone's functions without having to access all those small buttons is the major advantage," says Francis MacDougall, co-founder and CTO of GestureTek. In the U.S., Verizon has already put out games that take advantage of the technology, but entrepreneurs can look forward to more applications in the near future. Map navigation using gestures is one to look out for. Eventually, mobile web navigation, photo browsing and zooming will reach a phone near you. It's all part of a larger trend to make cell phones more user-friendly for increasingly advanced applications.

About GestureTek Mobile
GestureTek Mobile is a world leader in gesture-based user interface for mobile devices and the inventor of the patented, award-winning EyeMobile Engine.  EyeMobile Engine is the world’s first software-only solution that uses the existing camera on a cell phone or mobile Internet device to provide people with the ability to interact with their device using gestures. By shaking, rocking or rolling the phone (or making hand motions in front of the phone) users can answer a call, play mobile games, scroll menus, navigate maps, view images and documents, browse the web, enter text messages and do anything else they would normally do on their mobile device, without pressing buttons.  Licensees of GestureTek’s patents or technologies include Sony for the EyeToy, Microsoft for the XBOX 360 and Hasbro for the ION Educational Gaming System.  GestureTek Mobile’s award wins include the 2008 Mobile Innovation Global Award, the LAPTOP Magazine ‘Best of CTIA’ Award and the NATPE++ Award for the Hottest Mobile Application.  Games powered by the EyeMobile Engine have been recognized by the BREW Game Developer Awards, the International Mobile Gaming Awards and the IGN Editors Choice Awards.  GestureTek Mobile developed the first gesture-recognition software to be embedded in NTT DoCoMo phones in Japan and provided the software for the first gesture-controlled mapping application on a cellphone.  EyeMobile supports many handsets on the JAVA, BREW, SYMBIAN, WINDOWS MOBILE and DOJA platforms. Applications are available for over the air download on the Verizon network.  Full developer tools are available on the Qualcomm website.   A catalogue of turnkey games and applications for multiple platforms are available from the GestureTek mobile site. GestureTek Mobile is a business unit of GestureTek Inc., pioneer, patent-holder and world-leader in computer vision control for presentation and entertainment systems.