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| Tobii Eye Tracker |
Intel is betting big on the future of human interfaces with a $21
million (143 million kronor) investment in Tobii, a Swedish company that
has been working for years on eye-tracking laptops and other devices. A
10% stake, it implies a valuation of around $200 million for the
12-year-old company. In 2007 Tobii raised $14M, then in 2009 another
$26.8M, and the $21M from Intel Capital continues that trend of steady
R&D funding.
The news, announced by co-founder and VP John Elvesjö and reported by Computer Sweden, comes on the heels of Tobii’s newest eye-tracking device, which was announced a week ago at CeBit. The timing probably isn’t a coincidence.
Elvesjö noted that their plan was always to test at small scale in
laptops and then expand into larger markets: cars, for instance, or
perhaps mobile phones.
Intel is a leader in desktop computing and servers, but it has been
taken by surprise in recent years by rival ARM, which now dominates the
embedded and mobile space. Eye-tracking is a potentially influential
feature that could grow in value especially in the personal and
ubiquitous device areas, and Intel probably hopes to secure a functional
advantage by integrating next-generation interface technologies. Tobii
technology has already been demonstrated controlling Windows 8 via
eye-tracking, and Intel is certainly highly invested in the future of
that OS.
Tobii is not yet profitable, which is to be expected in an
R&D-heavy company building out a product on venture investments.
2010 saw a ~$3.5M loss (other earnings haven’t been reported), but if
Intel’s valuation is any indication, that kind of spending is perfectly
healthy.
The new model of eye-tracker is smaller, cheaper, better, and draws less power than its predecessor. Their products
have historically been quite expensive, but they hope that this new,
more easily embeddable device will allow the technology to spread
downwards towards consumer devices.
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