Soft Kinetic | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Mon, 26 Oct 2015 18:23:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Soft Kinetic | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Toshiba may sell its image sensor business to Sony https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/toshiba-may-sell-its-image-sensor-business-to-sony/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/toshiba-may-sell-its-image-sensor-business-to-sony/#respond Mon, 26 Oct 2015 19:00:46 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=273064 Toshiba is apparently in advanced talks to sell its image sensor business to Sony for as much as $165 million. This comes just a few weeks after we learned that Sony also acquired sensor start-up company, SoftKinetic. So far, this news is coming from multiple sources, ranging from Japanese newpaper, Nikkei along with sources familiar …

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Toshiba is apparently in advanced talks to sell its image sensor business to Sony for as much as $165 million. This comes just a few weeks after we learned that Sony also acquired sensor start-up company, SoftKinetic. So far, this news is coming from multiple sources, ranging from Japanese newpaper, Nikkei along with sources familiar with the deal speaking with Re/Code over the weekend. 

Toshiba is going through some internal restructuring right now, which would explain why it may want to sell off its image sensor business. Toshiba's image sensors are a part of its LSI semiconductor business. The deal with Sony would include handing over its manufacturing plant in Oita, Japan, according to Re/Code's anonymous sources.

toshiba-tk437-sensor

The sale should be finalised soon, so we should hear more in the coming days or weeks. With its exit from the image sensor business, Toshiba would focus its efforts in to its other semiconductor activities, including its flash chip memory business. This may also have a knock-on effect on the camera modules Toshiba had planned for Google's highly anticipated Project Ara smartphone.

As always, even if such a deal is agreed upon, there are third-parties that may need to approve the go-ahead for anti-competitive reasons. This would be the third huge tech deal to be announced in the last month, with Dell acquiring EMC and Western Digital acquiring SanDisk.

KitGuru Says: Sony has a strong place in the image sensor market, with plenty of highly rated cameras under its belt. However, Sony isn't in the best position financially right now, so it will be interesting to see if this acquisition has an effect on its bottom line at the end of the fiscal year should the deal end up actually going through. 

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Sony buys up company that could track next-gen VR movements https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/camera-peripherals/jon-martindale/sony-buys-up-company-that-could-track-next-gen-vr-movements/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/camera-peripherals/jon-martindale/sony-buys-up-company-that-could-track-next-gen-vr-movements/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2015 10:32:21 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=271625 Softkinetic Systems is a company that's been working on an interesting 3D sensing technology for some time now. It uses lasers to track the time of flight of light, much like sonar does with sound waves, and uses it to track people, objects and actions in a 3D space. While that holds lots of potential for smarter …

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Softkinetic Systems is a company that's been working on an interesting 3D sensing technology for some time now. It uses lasers to track the time of flight of light, much like sonar does with sound waves, and uses it to track people, objects and actions in a 3D space. While that holds lots of potential for smarter homes and more interactive technologies through gestures, one facet of it that has people excited is its potential for the next-generation of virtual reality control, without the need for gamepads or controllers.

sensor

That's why the fact that Sony has purchased Softkinetic is so exciting. If its laser based trackers are able to keep an eye on our bodies as a whole, rather than just hands and head as is the case with many VR systems now, there's huge potential for more detailed experiences.

Better yet, we know it works, as a simple rendition was demoed at CES last year, when paired up with an Oculus Rift headset.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJwljGamIGw']

In the above demonstration, the camera system was only used to track the hands of the user, but it was able to keep an eye on his fingers, as well as palms and wrists in much more detail than other virtual reality trackers. It's easy to imagine this extrapolated to having a pair or more trackers that keep an eye on much more.

“Sony will focus on combining Softkinetic’s ToF range image sensor technology expertise with its own technologies with the aim of developing the next generation of range image sensors and solutions, not only in the field of imaging, but for broader sensing-related applications as well,” the Japanese electronics maker said in a statement (via RoadtoVR).

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KitGuru Says: What sorts of applications could you imagine becoming common place with technology like this? 

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