AiLive Inc. (formerly iKuni) is a software company based in
Mountain View,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
. The company was co-founded in 2000 by software programmer and developer
Wei Yen
Wei Yen () is a Taiwanese-American technologist and serial entrepreneur. He has been involved with several companies, including most recently as Chairman and Founder of AiLive.
Yen received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in Operating Syst ...
and by computer engineer
Xiaoyuan Tu. The company has worked closely with
Nintendo on the development of motion-sensing hardware, tools and software for the
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...
video game console.
AiLive is responsible for the LiveMove series of products.
[AiLive Inc.]
LiveMove White Paper
, 2006 The system was introduced in 2006, using
machine learning
Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence.
Machine ...
technology to facilitate the development of motion recognition packages for individual games. Developers were able to use the software to build
classifiers from provided examples of specific motions to be included in each game. The LiveMove system was used for development of games for the Wii.
Though initially released for professional developers of Wii games, the software was designed for use by independent developers as well, with a goal of expanding the possibilities of the new console and
Wii Remote
The Wii Remote, also known colloquially as the Wiimote, is the primary game controller for Nintendo's Wii home video game console. An essential capability of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact ...
interface.
For the year 2011, AiLive's technology was used in 5 out of the top 11 best selling Wii games, with the ''
Wii Sports Resort
''Wii Sports Resort'' is a 2009 sports simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console, and is a sequel to ''Wii Sports''. It is one of the first titles to require the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which w ...
'', ''
Just Dance 2
''Just Dance 2'' is a 2010 dance rhythm game developed by Ubisoft Paris and Ubisoft Milan and published by Ubisoft. The game was released exclusively for the Wii on October 12, 2010, in North America and in Australia and Europe on October 14, 20 ...
'' and ''
Just Dance 3
''Just Dance 3'' is a 2011 dance rhythm game released on the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 with Kinect and Move support respectively for the latter two. It is part of the '' Just Dance'' video game series published by Ubisoft originally on t ...
'' titles reaching #1 bestselling status over all platforms.
Wii MotionPlus
AiLive developed the Wii MotionPlus.
The device added short term 3D position tracking and long-term 3D orientation tracking to the Wii Remote motion controller. Initially provided as a dongle, the technology has since been integrated into all new Wii Remote controllers carrying the logo Wii MotionPlus Inside.
The Wii MotionPlus was initially shipped in a bundle with ''
Wii Sports Resort
''Wii Sports Resort'' is a 2009 sports simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console, and is a sequel to ''Wii Sports''. It is one of the first titles to require the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which w ...
''. Nintendo shipped more than 29 million units globally, making it the sixth best selling game of all time. In addition to the Wii MotionPlus device concept, AiLive developed and patented the motion tracking algorithms for the device and made them available to developers through the LiveMove 2 software.
LiveMove 2
A new version of the software, LiveMove 2, was announced on July 7, 2008.
Similar to the previous version, LiveMove 2 was developed specifically to work with Nintendo hardware. In this case, the software is a development tool for use with the Wii MotionPlus attachment that AiLive had codeveloped.
On June 2, 2009, following the unveiling of
PlayStation Move
is a motion game controller developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Initially released in 2010 for use with the PlayStation 3 home video game console, its compatibility was later expanded to its successor, the PlayStation 4 in 2013, its Pla ...
at
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 (E3 2009) was the 15th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 2, 2009, and ended on June 4, 2009, with 41,000 total attendees.
Majo ...
, AiLive announced the release of LiveMove 2 for
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
. Through a partnership between AiLive and Sony, the LiveMove 2 software was made available to all registered PlayStation 3 developers.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:AiLive
Companies based in Mountain View, California
Companies established in 2000
Privately held companies based in California
Software companies based in California
Software companies of the United States