苹果收购Kinect传感器制造商 曾申请3D投影专利[2013-11-26]

新华网11月26日电 据美国科技博客Gizmodo报道，你的iPhone马上可能会增加新功能了。苹果收购了3D传感技术公司PrimeSense，这家以色列公司就是微软Kinect传感器的制造商。但没有迹象显示苹果想制造什么产品来跟Xbox竞争。

这次收购的意义在于，苹果终于开始重视3D技术了。过去几年里这家公司一直在申请和3D技术相关的专利，但看看苹果发布的产品，你根本不知道苹果在申请3D专利。但是苹果过去的专利申请和PrimeSense的技术之间确实有很多令人兴奋的相似之处。苹果2009年的一项无需使用双手的3D显示技术就很疯狂，可以投射3D影像。当然，我们都要记住公司申请专利是防御性的，而苹果的秘密3D工程也许比3D专利多得多。

如果看看那些使用了PrimeSense技术的创新，事情就变得有意思了。今年早些时候，一家3D扫描公司使用PrimeSense的传感器制造了下一代消费级3D扫描仪，你能用这台机器扫描现实生活中的物体然后3D打印出来，只需要几分钟。已经有外设可以给iPad带来这样的功能，但是想想，如果苹果拥有了这项技术并且把技术应用在自己的设备里，那么苹果会生产什么产品。

很明显，这些还都只是猜测。苹果对这次收购的回答非常有限：“苹果经常购买小型技术公司，我们一般不讨论我们的目的和计划。”也许在很多年里我们在苹果产品里都看不到跟3D传感器沾边的东西，不过至少这种可能性比以前大多了。

译者：林杉

百度新闻与新华网国际频道合作稿件，转载请注明出处。

Confirmed: Apple Bought the Company That Made the Original Kinect

Your iPhone could be getting some serious new capabilities soon, following the news that Apple has acquired the 3D-sensing technology company PrimeSense. This is the same Israeli company that built the original Microsoft Kinect sensor. But that doesn't mean Apple's planning an Xbox competitor anytime soon.

What the acquisition does suggest is that Apple's finally getting serious about 3D. The Cupertino company has been filing patents for 3D-related technology for years now—and you wouldn't really know it based on the devices it's releasing. But there are some pretty exciting parallels between Apple's past patent filings and PrimeSense technology. Take Apple's patent for a hands-free 3D display from 2009, or its crazy, projected 3D display, for instance. Of course, it's always important to remember that companies often file patents defensively, and Apple probably has twice as many secret 3D projects as it has 3D patents.

Things get really interesting, however, when you consider some the latest innovations using PrimeSense technology. Earlier this year, a 3D-scanning company used PrimeSense sensors to build a next-gen 3D scanner for consumers that enabled you to scan real-world objects, then 3D-print copies of them in just a few minutes. Peripherals already exist that bring this type of functionality to the iPad, for example, but imagine what Apple could do if it owned the technology and could bake it right into its own devices.

Obviously, this is all speculation for now. Apple offered only its canned response about the acquisition: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." It might be years before we see anything remotely resembling a 3D sensor in an Apple product—but it's now a more realistic possibility now ever before.

(原标题：苹果收购Kinect传感器制造商 曾申请3D投影专利)