FingerWorks

Infobox Company
type = Subsidiary
foundation = flagicon|USA United States
location = flagicon|USA Newark, United States
industry = Gesture recognition
parent = Apple Inc.

FingerWorks was a gesture recognition company based in the United States, known mainly for its TouchStream multitouch keyboard. Founded by John Elias and Wayne Westerman of the University of Delaware in 1998, it produced a line of multi-touch products including the iGesture Pad and the TouchStream keyboard. Its assets were acquired by Apple Inc. in early 2005, and its product lines were discontinued.

History

Westerman was working on a dissertation on chord-based manipulation with a multi-touch surface while a doctoral student at the University of Deleware. He and Elias, a professor in his department, started FingerWorks while he was finishing his dissertation, which formed the basis for some of the company's products. Westerman developed repetetive stress problems while finishing his dissertation, which inspired active focus on low-impact inputs. [Wayne Westerman, 1999. [http://www.ece.udel.edu/~westerma/main.pdf Hand Tracking, Finger Identification, and Chordic Manipulation on a Multi-Touch Surface] ]

The company's products remained a high-end niche, and something of a curiosity, despite good press and industry awards. [New York Times, January 2002 : [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DE4DE113BF937A15752C0A9649C8B63 No Press, No Stress: When Fingers Fly] ] [The 2005 [http://www.cesweb.org/shared_files/innovations/innovations_2004/3699/mainphoto3699.jpgCES showcase Honorees] included the WinPad, a new FingerWorks design that never made it into production] In early 2005, FingerWorks went through a rocky period, and stopped shipping new products or responding actively to support requests. While they updated their support forums between April and June with new information, outside reports indicated that they had been acquired by a major technology company. [ [http://fingerfans.dreamhosters.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9 In April 2005] , former FingerWorks CEO Jeffrey White was described as follows: "Jeffrey White was most recently the CEO and Chairman of FingerWorks, Inc. a privately held producer of Computer Software and Hardware targeted at the input systems market. In this capacity, he successfully transformed a fledging startup into a leading edge provider of input technologies, which was ultimately acquired by a multi-billion dollar supplier of IT software and hardware for a price equal to 25 times revenue." " [http://www.mutualfunddashboard.com/about.aspx from Coates Analytics] "] This company turned out to be Apple, which acquired the company's IP along with Elias and Westerman.

In June 2005, FingerWorks officially announced they were no longer in business. [March 10, 2006. [http://www.macrumors.com/2006/03/10/apple-refining-the-touch-screen-interface-evidence-for-a-tablet-mac/ Mac Rumors] notes the company's closing the year before.] The founders continued to file and process patents for their work through late 2007. [ [http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=Fingerworks&FIELD1=AS&co1=AND&TERM2=&FIELD2=&d=PG01 Patent list] for Fingerworks, 2006-2007] And as of August 2008 they still file patents for Apple, Inc. [ [http://www.macrumors.com/2008/09/04/beyond-multi-touch-voice-gaze-facial-expression-recognition/ Beyond Multi-Touch: Voice, Gaze, Facial Expression Recognition] ]

Products

* TouchStream LP - a full-sized, folding split keyboard, with a flat membrane and zero-force keys. The entire keyboard surface has multitouch support that converts finger movements of different combinations of fingers into mouse and macro events. It comes with chording modes for graphics, Emacs, and gaming.
*: Surface inclination: 0-10 degrees; Adjustable split angle & separation
*: Active area: 5" by 13". Weight: 13 oz.

* TouchStream Mini - a one-hand keyboard + mouse keypad, with 15mm keys (75% normal size). Active area: 5" by 6.5"
* iGesture Pad - a one-hand gesture pad, with optional numpad keys. Active area: 6.25" by 5"
* iGesture Retro [ [http://www.fingerworks.com/retro_product.html From the Fingerworks site] ] - a one-hand gesture pad embedded into a full-size Microsoft keyboard

External links

* [http://www.fingerworks.com/ The Fingerworks site] , left up to provide support FAQs and documentation.

References