There’s no denying haptics have a certain cool factor. Obviously they’re appealing to venture capital firms right now: motion-sensing software company InvenSense has attracted $19 million in a series C round of funding, led by Sierra Ventures and a load of other big names like Qualcomm Ventures and DoCoMo capital.
InvenSense, whose applications include image stabilisation and navigation, will put the funding towards “company growth and evolv[ing] both the company business and product strategy”. The company reckons motion sensing will take off in mobile gaming and in smart user interfaces.
Motion sensing is a fascinating area, but applications are still in niche and more gimmicky than useful. Still, it’s a chicken and egg problem: phones need to have the appropriate tech inside them to make use of motion-sensitive applications, and without the apps, why put the necessary tech into the handsets? Hopefully, with some funding and some R&D, the motion-sensing people out there can come up with some must-have apps.