3Gear Systems was founded in March 2012 “to bring gestures to everyday computer interfaces.” Its goal is to empower users of 2D mice and touchpads with 3D ten-finger dexterous control, and “to create a gesture recognition system that actually works.” The company recently raised $1.9M in a seed round led by K9 Ventures, with participation from Intel Capital, CrunchFund, Ovo Fund (Eric Chen), Safa Rashtchy and others.

Since its introduction in 2010, the Kinect has made 3D camera technology available to ordinary consumers, opening up a new world of gestural interfaces for playing games. However, the existing Kinect software and algorithms work best when capturing large, full-body actions for users that are several meters from the sensor.

In contrast, 3Gear’s technology enables 3D cameras based on the Kinect to reconstruct a finger-precise representation of what the hands are doing. This enables simple and intuitive interactions that leverage small, comfortable gestures: pinching and small wrist movements instead of sweeping arm motions, for example.

The system provides millimeter-level accuracy of the user’s hands using a camera (PrimeSense Carmine 1.09) mounted about 70cm (28”) above a desk. Because the camera is mounted above the desk, the system works well even if the hands are just a couple centimeters above the keyboard or desk surface, avoiding the so-called “gorilla arm” problem. It also allows users to rest their forearms comfortably on the desk surface while making small motions with their wrist and fingers.

3Gear software takes the raw 3D data from the camera and turns it into usable information on the state of the hands. The company provides a simple API based on pointing and pinching as well as a lower-level API that provides approximate joint angles. The company has designed a catalog of gestures around activities users care about, including browsing the web, watching videos, playing games and manipulating 3D models.

Robert Wang, Ph.D. (explored computer vision and human computer interaction in his doctoral thesis at MIT)

Chris Twigg, Ph.D. (previously a R&D Engineer at Industrial Light & Magic)

Kenrick Kin, Ph.D. (received his Ph.D. in multitouch interaction from UC Berkeley in December 2012; concurrently worked part-time in the research group at Pixar Animation Studios)