Qualcomm buys into gesture recognition

Qualcomm has acquired assets from gesture recognition technology company, GestureTek, to bolster its smartphone product portfolio and enable newer and better user experiences.

According to the company's press release Monday, GestureTek has more than 25 years of experience implementing gesture-based technologies in mobile devices, entertainment facilities, healthcare systems, retail locations and public and private venues. By acquiring intellectual property assets relating to gesture recognition, the chipmaker aims to improve its smartphone capabilities, it noted.

Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president and group president at Qualcomm, said in a media statement: "Our acquisition of key technology and assets from GestureTek will strengthen Qualcomm's smartphone product portfolio and enable our customers to launch products with new and compelling user experiences."

The company stated that GestureTek technology will be integrated into Qualcomm's current and next-generation Snapdragon processors. This will give original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) the capability to produce smartphones, tablets and home entertainment devices with user interfaces based on natural human gestures, it added.

The company did not disclose financial details for the deal.

In an earlier ZDNet Asia report, Qualcomm made its Snapdragon processors, initially developed for high-end phones, available for mid-tier smartphones and said it would likely include the chips in entry-level phones as the mobile industry gained scale.

According to Cristiano Amon, the company's senior vice president of product management for CDMA technologies, availing its chips to phones down the stack shows Qualcomm's commitment to driving the cost of smartphones to the sub-US$100 pricepoint and better target price-sensitive emerging markets in the Southeast Asia region.