I was recently speaking with Ken Perlin regarding fast face tracking code. When he spoke of how his tracker matched on every frame using separate sums of horizontal and vertical pixels (compressed into columns and rows respectively), it reminded me of Integral Images in the Viola Jones algorithm.
I proceeded to enlighten the person who pioneered their use in computer graphics… Oops!
Today I reversed engineered the core technology of a hardware company that recently raised a $20m+ Series B.
This just goes to show that keeping something secret doesn’t mean that others won’t be able to copy it or come up with something better.
The crazy thing is… I know next to nothing about hardware.
It was a depth sensor using a laser light source and an IR camera in a compact webcam-like enclosure. They made it sound magical, but it was really quite simple. They demoed it for about 15 minutes, and there were no pictures allowed. They shot down everyone’s guesses (structured light, time of flight, sonar), and didn’t really describe how the device worked. However, after a few minutes of thinking, extracting the trick behind the technology was pretty easy.
If their technology is really this simple, I’m guessing that their investors are actually investing in the business plan. Now I’m really interested in their strategy…
Jules 8:08 pm on June 1, 2009 Permalink
How long did it take you to figure it out?
You should see what kind of strategy they use so you can mold it for when you start raising money for your inventions.
Kevin Chiu 12:40 am on June 2, 2009 Permalink
After their demo ended, I guess it took about 15 – 30 minutes.
Their strategy is to be a component for product makers, who can claim the technology is theirs. I think they’re doing something like NVidia’s model, where they make a reference design and other companies can adapt it as they see fit.