Four years ago, Hillcrest Laboratories founder Daniel Simpkins and his team of engineers and designers hit upon what they thought was an easy solution to making TV watching more enjoyable, creating a simple system where users just point to what they want on the screen.
From there, the Rockville startup built prototypes, revised operating software systems and tried to create a buzz about the technology. Its efforts have been well received by the tech community, winning such accolades as the 2006 International CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards, presented by the Consumer Electronics Association, and Popular Mechanics magazine's Best of CES 2007. But what the company did not have was a product in production to move the concept from great idea to profitable technology in widespread use.
That is set to change with the mid-August launch of the Logitech MX Air. Logitech, the world's largest manufacturer of PC accessories, is marketing the $149 device as a premium mouse that can operate on the desktop or in the palm of a user's hand like a TV remote control.
Driving the device is Hillcrest's Freespace technology, which recognizes wrist movement and allows users to point to what they want on the screen. MX Air led flexible strips marks the first commercial use of Freespace.
"Four years, $20 million and 10 million lines of code later, this is what you get," Simpkins said. "The MX Air has moved us from the drawing board to the early production phase. This is a milestone for us - the tip of the iceberg."
The Logitech mouse, coupled with the popularity of Nintendo's Wii, which uses motion-control technology to play games, has Simpkins convinced his company is ready to break out of startup mode. Prior to the success of the Wii, Simpkins said, it was hard to convince people that pointing technology could be adapted to the TV.
"We were on the fringes of outer space before the Wii hit," Simpkins said. "People said, 'It's cool, but people won't adopt it.' The Wii changed that."
"Anytime you have a company that paves the way for a paradigm shift, the companies that follow on the heels of that innovation tend to benefit," Simpkins added.
Hillcrest's Freespace combines microelectromechanical systems sensors, digital signal processors and RF (radio frequency) wireless technology to translate hand movement. Highlights of the Freespace technology include automatic orientation - no matter how the remote is held, up is up and down is down. Hillcrest engineers also spent about two years studying and crunching mathematical models to come up with a solution to accommodate for naturally occurring hand tremors.
Even before the success of the Wii, Logitech saw Hillcrest's Freespace as a perfect fit with its concept for an "air" mouse that would work like a regular desktop pointer, but would also feel natural enough that people would be comfortable using it like a remote.
"The opportunity we saw was a transition in the way people use their computers," said Erik Charlton, Logitech's director of product marketing for gaming and performance mice. "It would be a way for people to not have to lean forward and hunch; instead they could lean back and enjoy themselves."
In a rare move for the company, Logitech even put the "Freespace" tag on the mouse itself. Charlton said Logitech worked with Hillcrest for close to three years until they felt the technology was ready.
"We're not one to experiment and just launch something and let it go," Charlton said. "The Freespace technology allows us to differentiate the MX Air."
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