E-Planet Inc, another spin-off from Paul Allen’s Palo Alto, California-based think-tank Interval Research Inc, says its first plans are to enter the consumer entertainment software and networked toy market. In the short-term, we are focusing on applications in the networked entertainment and toy markets that enable kids to use movement as a means of interacting with their home PCs, said Meg Withgott, co-founder, chief technology officer and VP of design at the new company. The company says its software applications will enable children as young as three to interact with computers in new and visceral ways. Longer-term, it says it will introduce new interfaces to a range of future digital devices, supplementing existing input devices such as keyboards, mice and joysticks with other means of input. Digital video cameras will be used to enable home computing devices to see the real world and react accordingly. Consumers will be able to manipulate their on-screen worlds by moving their bodies naturally, just as they do in the real world says the company, which claims to hold numerous patents for what it calls its vision technologies. E-planet has won funding of around $6m from both Interval and Intel Corp (CI No 3,557).
