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Microsoft buys Israeli company linked to Project Natal

tgdaily.com — Microsoft has confirmed the acquisition of 3DV Systems, an Israeli company that specializes in advanced image sensing technology. A number of patents owned by 3DV Systems and Prime Sense have reportedly been licensed by Microsoft for use in Project Natal.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 25, 2009

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  • Fejerro, on 06/25/2009, -5/+23Yeah, kind of how Valve just hired the entire team of Narbacular Drop to work on Portal. What crap that turned out to be. When will the world learn that when a small team with huge talent and innovative ideas and technology is given the near-limitless resources of a company like Microsoft, everything goes to hell?
  • dig1x, on 06/25/2009, -1/+17There have been articles showing the software behind Natal.

    The most revealing thusfar is on Johnny Chung Lee's blog.

    http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/2009/06/proje ...

    Natal's 3D camera is able to do realtime motion capture. Pretty great stuff.
  • wpi97, on 06/25/2009, -3/+16Israeli invasion of what?

    But if you have decided to not support Israel in general, then please make sure that you are not using a computer with an Intel CPU, because it has probably been developed in the Israeli branch of Intel. HP has also bought several Israeli companies in the recent years, so you may want to avoid HP products as well to be consistent. And if, G-d forbid, you have digestive problems, tell your doctor that you cannot use the camera pill, which one swallows to take pictures of the digestive tract, because it was invented and produced in Israel. And make sure that you never ever use ICQ.

    Have a nice life!
  • Ragecloak, on 06/25/2009, -1/+14"3DV Systems' image sensing technology is based on the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) principle, which generates distance (depth) information for each pixel or object captured by a camera. Depth data is determined by emitting pulses of infra-red light to all objects in the scene and sensing the reflected light from the surface of each object.

    Objects are subsequently arranged in layers based on the distance information acquired by the camera's D pixels, which provides real-time depth information as standard black and white video. Color data is generated using a standard color imaging sensor."

    So that's how they do it. Damnit, why didnt I think of it first
  • waver01, on 06/25/2009, -2/+15Do some research, natal is based on in-house development. They're only buying these companies for the patents.
  • darthsnoopy, on 06/25/2009, -2/+12I know right! Like..Halo sucked so bad!..wait..no....guess again....
  • wpi97, on 06/25/2009, -1/+9True, but since ICQ was the first instant messenger and it was invented in Israel, maybe you should avoid all instant messengers...

    Yes, I know about 'talk' and IRC. I am actually old enough to have used them. But ICQ was the first GUI-based IM used by the general public, not just us geeks.
  • tzvika613, on 06/25/2009, -3/+11The Palestinian population in the West Bank, Gaza and Arab East Jerusalem grew by about 30% in the last decade, according to census data from The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (under the administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas), from 2.89 million to 3.76 million. (Some genocide !)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL0 ...
    http://digg.com/d1p3gB
    * * *
    And Palestinian life expectancy is 73.46 years. ("Only" 71.97 years in the Gaza Strip) (Some genocide !)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_P ...
  • slothchunk, on 06/25/2009, -3/+113DV ZCam
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_yWZFcgPPk&fea ...
  • B1665r, on 06/25/2009, -4/+12Zamfir is a troll. You replied with something entirely reasonable. That is troll food. Please don't feed the trolls.
  • solid12345, on 06/25/2009, -2/+10Microsoft should buy the Dome of the Rock and convert it into the world's biggest arcade, mideast peace problem solved
  • monsieurginger, on 06/25/2009, -5/+13wait for it ...
  • username9000, on 06/25/2009, -10/+18go away troll. nobody cares what you think, except those that like to have sexual relationships with their PS3.
  • foopirata, on 06/25/2009, -2/+9@slyzxx: Guess you won't be using any site based on any version of PHP > 3.0. After all, Zeev Suraski is Israeli.
  • badwithcomputer, on 06/24/2009, -13/+20i think a ghost is violating that guy in the red shirt
  • solid12345, on 06/25/2009, -4/+11More Christian Lebanese Arabs have been killed by Palestinians than Palestinians killed by Israelis yet you don't see them crying genocide
  • COINTELPROAgent, on 06/25/2009, -6/+13Hey man, don't worry I dugg your article. But I do know the "you digg me I digg you" crowd. The ones who tag their personal target articles as favorites for the convenience of their friends who do the same. amirite?

    Don't worry dude, I'm not out to get you. But your friend could have done a better job for you, something like "It's amazing how they can use infrared light to gauge depth in an image now; this has tons of potential uses."

    Call me a fan of the average guy who plays fair and doesn't have a shout system anymore.
  • COINTELPROAgent, on 06/25/2009, -5/+11http://www.scriptlance.com/projects/1245097559.sht ...

    You're welcome. Now gbtw.
  • inactive, on 06/25/2009, -5/+11Don't care, just wanna kill hookers and steal cars without a controller.
  • fumbduck, on 06/25/2009, -4/+10you can go play with the palestinian toys then. tick, tick, tick, tick...
  • tzvika613, on 06/25/2009, -4/+10If you are not going to buy that since you do not support the Israeli invasion you should see some of the other things you should avoid buying. Here is a video that instructs on how to properly boycott Israel. Hit the zionists where it hurts: in their pockets -
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saeky9I5T9c
  • MiDri, on 06/25/2009, -2/+7I'd rather they be able to do it then Apple... Apple would lock it down like fort nox and charge you 2x what another company would.
  • COINTELPROAgent, on 06/25/2009, -5/+10I almost never shouted my articles, and I never meant for them to reach the front page. My articles target a specific group: race haters.

    But keep talking about it. People who use Digg regularly know how things get spammed up to the front page and who is involved.
  • COINTELPROAgent, on 06/25/2009, -9/+14Don't make lazy comments when spam networking.
  • wpi97, on 06/25/2009, -0/+4I stand corrected. PowWow did indeed come before ICQ, but I have never heard of it until today. Probably neither have most people...

    As far as whether software is invented, I don't know. When I am writing code, it sure feels like I am inventing something. I think I see your point, but I guess you could say that the concept of chatting in real time over the internet using text was invented by whoever first wrote talk, and later refined by whoever thought up IRC. Kind of like telegraph, i. e. the idea of encoding letters as dots and dashes, and transmitting them via electrical impulses over a wire was invented by Morse.
  • wpi97, on 06/25/2009, -4/+7http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genocide

    http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-02/200 ...

    And when we put the two together we get

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/libel
  • foopirata, on 06/25/2009, -3/+6"Damnit, why didnt I think of it first" - most of these technologies come directly or indirectly from Israel's security needs. A lot of brainstorming starts in the field, goes to the labs and ends up in the shelves of US stores. Basically, the constraints and needs put our industry in a different mindset, I guess.
  • rilus, on 06/25/2009, -0/+3GreatPurge... you've revealed yourself for the racist, ignorant, extremist, intolerant moron that you are.
  • Ymeg, on 06/25/2009, -0/+3Bigger have fallen.
  • kingatrock, on 06/25/2009, -1/+4um, wouldn't the company name being bought be more important than where they are?
    Why not just say American company buys Israeli company linked to human project.
  • Borgcube, on 06/25/2009, -0/+3Do trolls still troll?
  • MiDri, on 06/25/2009, -1/+4The sensor/camera is only part of the problem, you need to be able to handle the data and tie it to say a 3d model (not to hard) but getting it all the work as seamlessly as they have is pretty amazing.
  • Doc123, on 06/25/2009, -6/+8Zionist pigs

    Allah Snackbar!!!
  • MiDri, on 06/25/2009, -2/+4Not sure what you are talking about, only flaw I saw was with the crazy foot action of his avatar (which would be easy to fix, they just need join constraints.)
  • jonglebeats, on 06/25/2009, -2/+4I'm pretty sure it has been thought of before, it's more about actually making it.
  • godzillaWax, on 06/25/2009, -1/+3Microsoft has already said prior to E3 that Natal was in the works long prior to the 3DV deal. Microsoft bought them to ensure the tech wouldnt fall into the hands of the competition, but otherwise Natal was homegrown.
  • phosphor112, on 06/25/2009, -1/+3Sony was working with them for the longest time during the PS2 era.

    Link of a video of the guy who designed the original Eye Toy
    http://lang.stanford.edu/courses/ee380/2003-2004/0 ...

    About halfway through or so he starts to talk about their interest in the 3DZ Cam.
  • mrukz, on 06/26/2009, -0/+1I brought this up because I think that such "invention" thinking occurs often in the patents/copyright debate. I am a computer scientist, and I have read many papers and written some as well. I have never seen a fellow scientist claiming that they have invented something. It is more of a discovery of something that was there before and every scientist relies on the wealth of information around him. Same with software. I am using OS X right now, and I doubt I could say it was invented. Designed, yes. Polished, yes. Invented, no. Disclaimer: I am not an OS X fanatic, but I happen to use it. :)
  • jhbarr, on 06/25/2009, -3/+4HP, Intel, Cisco, etc already own a lot of Israeli companies. Don't need to start a bidding war over there as well.
  • djpray2k, on 06/26/2009, -1/+1That's Microsoft, they don't innovate they buy. Look at DOS - Gates went to see IBM with no OS, sold them the idea of DOS, found the guy with DOS, bought it from him for peanuts and made millions.

    Don't go thinking Apple are that different. Sure they are more innovative than Microsoft but iTunes was born from another media player they bought.

    As for NATAL - I'm going to reseve this the second it's possible - price no object.
  • inactive, on 06/25/2009, -3/+3where is it...
  • chingy1788, on 06/25/2009, -1/+1who needs project natal
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeLbXqVdu4g&fea ...
    A comp eng uni project...
  • mrukz, on 06/25/2009, -1/+1Without weighing in on any other aspects of the discussion, did not PowWow come before ICQ?

    Also, to clarify, I do not think that software is invented. I could hardly say that Mosaic was the first browser invented or that gmail was the first useful online email invented. Just my two cents on software.
  • ps3me, on 06/25/2009, -7/+7Yea natals cool, until your dog runs in front of you mid game and ***** up your whole game, also I live in an apartment n if i have to jump and stomp my neighbors downstairs are gonna be pissed. but you guys can digg me down since my username is ps3 me ;)
  • DavidGX, on 07/05/2009, -1/+1Sucking up to israel begins in...... *****.
  • HenrySmith24, on 08/03/2009, -0/+0<a href="http://www.microsoftrnd.co.il">http://www. ... Israel R&D Center</a>: That has the potential to be worlds ahead of the No matter, I think we all new M$ wasn't capable of ...I love tech innovation
  • odkin, on 06/25/2009, -13/+13Israel-bashing begins in 3...2...
  • DaNuKaSAN, on 06/25/2009, -4/+4The M$ pacman strikes again!

    OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM
  • B1665r, on 06/25/2009, -2/+2Bing!, er I mean Bang!
  • jhbarr, on 06/25/2009, -5/+4And we have liftoff!
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