Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

Microsoft Scoops Up Perceptive Pixel, the Start-Up Launched by Multitouch Pioneer Jeff Han

Microsoft announced at its partner conference on Monday that it is buying Perceptive Pixel, the New York-based company started by multitouch pioneer Jeff Han.

The company is perhaps best known as the maker of the technology behind the giant touchscreen used by CNN. Terms of the deal were not announced.

Perceptive Pixel had shown off a giant display running Windows 8 at a Microsoft event in Barcelona in February. Han told AllThingsD in 2010 that the company was working on adapting its technology to run on more kinds of devices.

Interestingly, though, Microsoft is making Perceptive Pixel part of its Office unit.

“The acquisition of (Perceptive Pixel) allows us to draw on our complementary strengths, and we’re excited to accelerate this market evolution,” said Kurt DelBene, president, Office Division for Microsoft. Perceptive Pixel’s “large touch displays, when combined with hardware from our OEMs, will become powerful Windows 8-based PCs and open new possibilities for productivity and collaboration.”

Here’s Han in 2010:

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work