Startup says it has patents pending on technology that may be nearly identical to processes used in Microsoft’s new computer.
June 5, 2007

A California company says it has patents pending on technology that may be nearly identical to processes used in Microsoft’s new Surface computer, raising the specter of legal action.

“Microsoft is opening up the landscape and creating legitimacy for something we’ve been doing for quite some time, and that’s welcome, but on the flip side as a small company we have to defend our intellectual property,” said Mike Ribero, CEO of Redwood City, California-based Reactrix Systems.

Reactrix’s interactive advertising display systems appear in shopping malls, theater lobbies and other commercial spaces and use motion-sensing cameras to let people manipulate digital images on floors, walls, and tabletops. In San Francisco’s Metreon mall, for example, visitors can play a virtual soccer game that’s projected on the floor of one of the main walkways.

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About 250 of the systems have gone into use worldwide since they first appeared in Nike stores in 2003, Mr. Ribero said. In February, Reactrix raised $45 million in a fourth round of funding.

Microsoft’s coffee table-like Surface device will ship in November to hotels, restaurants, casinos, and retail shops, letting users move images around on its display screen with gestures or touch. Like the Reactrix system, Surface uses cameras and a projector to detect and respond to movements, according to Microsoft’s descriptions of the product.

Reactrix founder Matthew Bell said the company has 19 patents pending and one approved in the United States in social and surface computing, beginning with Mr. Bell’s first filing in 2001, on technology he developed while still a student at Stanford. (Mr. Bell founded Reatrix the following year.) In addition, the company has filed 22 patents in Europe and has had one patent issued in several European countries, Mr. Bell said

“We’ve filed patents that cover both the hardware and software configurations for computer vision in order to see what’s going on, on the screen, and the interactions that can take place,” Mr. Bell said. “We’ve covered the space very thoroughly at this point. From the sneak peak Microsoft has offered, we feel they’re definitely in our space, but it’s premature to say they’re infringing. You can’t tell for sure until the product is available.”

In a statement, Microsoft said it has filed patents on the Surface technology but declined to offer specifics or to comment on Reactrix. Microsoft has said it began developing the hardware and software for Surface internally in 2001.

Observers say both Reactrix and Microsoft are treading on ground researchers have been going over for many years.

“Camera-based interfaces have a rich body of history, whether [they’re] purely gestural [systems] to ones more towards actual touch, as anyone in academia or research… knows,” said NYU computer science researcher Jeff Han. Han began shipping his own multitouch computers in December through Perceptive Pixel, the self-funded company he founded last year.

Analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group says he’s seen presentations from labs and research groups at Sony, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel involving products that appear similar to the Surface computer.

Mr. Ribero said Reactrix will be watching to see how Microsoft positions Surface and how it affects Reactrix’s market before it decides whether to pursue legal action.

 “If they’re essentially validating and helping build a market and not burning business, there’s no need to take draconian action,” said Mr. Ribero.

To analysts, the prospect of legal challenges to Surface comes as no surprise.

“I don’t know of any major technology that hasn’t been disputed,” said Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates. “You can’t be naïve about Microsoft. If you’re a company trying to get going and you’ve got intellectual property, your best recourse may be to present a compelling legal case and settle, and get your money and go.”