CamCube and the Shadow Development Suite

San Francisco, USA and Hannover, Germany, March 1, 2011: Omek, a leading provider of tools that add gesture recognition and body tracking capabilities to applications and devices, and PMDTechnologies (PMDTec), a leading 3D CMOS-based digital imaging supplier, today announced the establishment of a strategic partnership to deliver high-end solutions to hardware manufacturers, application developers and system integrators looking to integrate these capabilities into their products.  As part of the partnership, the companies will also offer a camera and tools bundle for the academic and scientific communities as well as research and development facilities.

Omek is adding the PMD[vision] CamCube™ to its lineup of supported cameras, and will be ensuring that the newest versions of its tools and middleware are available on PMDTec cameras at the time of the version release. Omek’s tools – offered to developers in the Shadow Development Suite™ – combine a robust body tracking and gesture recognition engine with APIs for the most popular programming languages and game engines, along with an automated gesture authoring tool and predefined gesture packs for common interface and gaming gestures. 

The CamCube brings high-resolution 3D imaging – 200 x 200 3D-pixel resolution – to applications that benefit from higher-quality image precision and resolution. All other available 3D ToF (Time-of-Flight) and some of themore popular 3D cameras operate at lower resolutions. One of the major advantages of greater pixel density in the depth map is increased precision in body tracking and gesture recognition capabilities.

“3D cameras bring a whole new world of functionality to software and hardware, and some customers require high-resolution imaging, which the current crop of consumer cameras just can’t provide,” said Bernd Buxbaum, chief executive officer of PMDTec. “By working with Omek, we’re able to offer a fully integrated unique solution to these more demanding customers.”

PMDTec will be offering a bundle of their CamCube and the Shadow Development Suite for academic, scientific and R&D customers.

Together with additional strategic technology partners, PMDTec is also developing new cameras for the consumer and commercial markets, to be offered to TV, set-top box and computer manufacturers, as well as interactive digital signage systems and other key markets for gesture- and body-tracking-enabled applications. Omek will support these new camera launches, the first of which will be introduced in Q4 2011 and is currentlybeing shown to hardware manufacturers for initial design reviews.

“The excitement around gesture-based and body-tracking gaming has demonstrated the consumer appeal for natural user interfaces,” said Janine Kutliroff, chief executive officer of Omek. “The expansion of PMD’s product line will bring new choices and capabilities to hardware manufacturers, whether they are making a console, a TV set, a computer, a set top box, or an interactive marketing installation. More choices for manufacturers result in better products for consumer and trade end users, expanding the growth of natural user interfaces that Omek tools and technology make possible.”

About Omek

Omek is transforming the way people interact with their devices and applications, by providing tools and technology that enable manufacturers and software developers to add natural user interfaces (NUIs) to their products. Omek’s gesture recognition and body tracking software is being incorporated into TVs, set-top boxes, computers and peripherals, interactive signs, medical and fitness devices, and into the content and applications that run on these devices. Omek’s tools work with all major 3D cameras, and support a broad range of processors and operating systems – giving customers the flexibility to take advantage of the latest technology, while maintaining portability for their applications. A privately held company, Omek is headquartered in Bet Shemesh, Israel, and has offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Tokyo. For more information, visit www.omekinteractive.com.

About PMDTechnologies GmbH

PMDTechnologies, a fabless IC company, is the worldwide leading 3D ToF CMOS-based digital imaging supplier. Founded in 2002 as a spin-off from the Center for Sensor Systems at the University of Siegen, PMDTec owns about 40 patents worldwide concerning PMD-based applications, the PMD principle and its realization. By 2010, the company had sold some 100,000 PMD sensors in various markets and applications. About 50 high skilled engineers are employed by the German based corporation working mainly on the chip design,quality assurance and in the area of pre-series and product development. For more information, please visit www.PMDTec.com.

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Contact:

Andrea Bruno

Omek

Tel: +1 415 524 7559 x12

Email: pr@omekinteractive.com

Sabrina Gnther

PMDTec

Tel: +49 271 23 85 38 828

E-Mail: s.guenther@PMDTec.com