Google Acquires YC-Backed Flutter, A Gesture Recognition Technology Startup
Google's Glass, Android and other products may soon be picking up more Kinect-style gesture features: the company has bought Flutter, a Y Combinator-backed startup that focuses on gesture recognition technology.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google had already explored camera-based input with its 2010 Gesture Search experiment. Buying Flutter shifts gesture recognition from a feature experiment toward an in-house capability that Google can assess across Glass, Android and other products.
First-order effects
- Flutter’s gesture-recognition technology and team move inside Google, giving its Glass and Android groups an internal source of Kinect-style interaction expertise.
- Y Combinator-backed Flutter ceases to be an independent startup, while Google gains control over where its technology is deployed.
Second-order effects
- Gesture-recognition startups seeking to supply mobile or wearable platforms lose a potential independent peer and face a better-resourced Google pursuing the same interaction layer.
- For Glass and Android, the acquisition makes gesture input a product-design option that can be developed alongside Google’s existing software rather than sourced externally.
Third-order effects
- If Google applies acquired interaction capabilities across products, competition in mobile and wearable interfaces will increasingly turn on proprietary sensing and recognition technology, not only application software.
- The deal is an example of platform owners using small capability acquisitions to bring emerging interface technologies inside their product organizations before standards solidify.
The trend: Large platforms are acquiring specialized input technologies to control how users interact with mobile and wearable computing.