Sony Depthsensing Solutions SA/NV, formerly known as SoftKinetic Systems, is a Belgian company originating from the merger of Optrima NV, founded by André Miodezky, Maarten Kuijk, Daniël Van Nieuwenhove, Ward Van der Tempel, Riemer Grootjans and Tomas Van den Hauwe and SoftKinetic SA founded by Eric Krzeslo, Thibaud Remacle, Gilles Pinault and Xavier Baele. Sony Depthsensing Solutions develops

gesture recognition Gesture recognition is an area of research and development in computer science and language technology concerned with the recognition and interpretation of human gestures. A subdiscipline of computer vision, it employs mathematical algorithms to ...

hardware and software for real-time

range imaging Range imaging is the name for a collection of techniques that are used to produce a 2D image showing the distance to points in a scene from a specific point, normally associated with some type of sensor device. The resulting range image has pix ...

(3D) cameras (such as

time-of-flight camera A time-of-flight camera (ToF camera), also known as time-of-flight sensor (ToF sensor), is a range imaging camera system for measuring distances between the camera and the subject for each point of the image based on time-of-flight, the round ...

s). SoftKinetic was founded in July 2007 providing gesture recognition solutions based on its technology to the interactive

digital entertainment Digital entertainment Industry includes, but is not restricted to, any combination of the following industries (that themselves have a considerable degree of overlap): *digital media *new media *video on demand *video games *interactive entertainmen ...

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

, health & fitness, and

serious game A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, he ...

industries. SoftKinetic technology has been applied to interactive

digital signage Digital signage is a segment of electronic signage that uses Electronic visual display, digital display technologies to present multimedia content in both public and private environments. Content may include video, images, text, or interactive me ...

and

advergaming An advergame (portmanteau of "advertisement" and "video game") is a form of advertising in video games, in which the video game is developed by or in close collaboration with a corporate entity for purposes of advertising a brand-name product. Whil ...

interactive television Interactive television is a form of Technological convergence#Media, media convergence, adding data services to traditional television technology. It has included on-demand delivery of content, online shopping, and viewer polls. Interactive TV i ...

, and

physical therapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is a healthcare profession, as well as the care provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through patient education, physical intervention, disease preventio ...

. Originally centered on providing

software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific t ...

s and

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software program that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to imple ...

, SoftKinetic branched out into internal game and application development with the establishment of SoftKinetic Studios in September 2009. SoftKinetic then progressed into hardware, partnering with time-of-flight camera developer Optrima in September 2010, with the two companies merging into a reformed SoftKinetic Systems by March 2011. SoftKinetic's gesture recognition software platform, named ''iisu'', can recognize and distinguish or isolate different scenic elements, can identify and track the body parts of a user, and can adapt the user's shape, posture, and movements to an existing physical model, and vice versa. iisu is compatible with all major real-time range imaging cameras, and the middleware guards developers against the particularities of the hardware. SoftKinetic's hardware, named ''DepthSense'' (formerly ''OptriCam''), is a line of 3D time-of-flight imagers based on patented CMOS sensor and time-of-flight (TOF) technologies. Based on Current Assisted Photonic Demodulation (CAPD), the company's patented CMOS pixel technology, DepthSense hardware products range from sensors to consumer and professional 3D cameras. SoftKinetic Studios has collaborated on numerous gesture recognition-based projects for various platforms such as PC, consoles, set-top boxes, arcade, and interactive digital signage; with companies such as Orange Vallée and

Fuel Industries Fuel Industries was a Canadian online interactive and marketing agency. Founded in 1999 by Mike Burns, Jeff Doiron, Dave Ozipko and Brian Nesbitt, Fuel Industries employed over 150 people and had offices in Los Angeles and Seattle. Overview Fue ...

. On 8 October 2015, Sony Corporation announced the acquisition of the company. In December 2017, Softkinetic was renamed to Sony Depthsensing Solutions.

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