Friday, November 14, 2008

Oblong Industries Launches

Los Angeles-based Oblong Industries, a venture-backed developer of gesture tracking software and graphical user interfaces, has unveiled itself, saying today that it is looking to "fundamentally change the way people use machines at work, in the living room, in conference rooms, and vehicles." The firm--which is backed by The Foundry Group--is based on research out of MIT. Oblong said it has laboratories in Los Angeles and Barcelona working on its products. The company's technology follows hand movements to manipulate on-screen objects. The company explained that its products are similar to the fictional gesture-driven displays in the "Minority Report"--the company's founders were scientific advisors to the film, based on their MIT work.