JVP (Jerusalem Venture Partners) has invested $5 million in positioning technology developer EPOS.
EPOS has developed a high-performance, low-cost 3-dimensional positioning technology for consumer and industrial applications such as digital pens for PC, mobile phones, PDAs and touch screens.
EPOS's technology that makes it possible to accurately locate objects using two chips and software.The two chips track one other, turning any screen into a touch screen. The company claims its solution is especially low-cost.
EPOS stated that it expects its core solution will be embedded in several major consumer electronic platforms in various markets, and will be a vital component of many mass-market consumer platforms including mobile phones, PCs, gaming, and more.
EPOS has already enabled several applications for the consumer electronic market. Among them is a digital pen that also doubles as a wireless mouse enabling users to capture notes in real-time, written on regular paper, and display them on a PC or mobile phone. Furthermore, the solution, when embedded in a cellular handset, enables additional features such as turning any regular phone display into a fully featured touch-screen - without changing the handset’s screen.
EPOS is also entering the gaming world by finalizing the development of new and unique ‘light gun,’ which the company stated is the only one of its kind compatible for non-CRT TVs and fully suited to leading console games platforms. In the future, EPOS plans to enable multiple gaming applications such as swords and virtual reality suits at affordable console peripheral prices.
“We believe that EPOS has solved elegantly some of the crucial problems in human- machine interaction and therefore has a superb business potential," said JVP general partner and EPOS board member Glen Schwaber.
“The funds raised are expected to allow EPOS to substantially strengthen the human capital and give EPOS the ability to fulfill the projects that are currently in final negotiations,” said EPOS CEO and co-founder Oded Eliashiv. “The market is looking for a positioning solution and we hope to deliver that by the end of this year at a very affordable price.”
EPOS was founded three years ago by Eliashiv, Nathan Altman and Ran Raif, and has raised over $1 million from private investors and Tel-Ad Electronics.
Currently EPOS has 11 employees at its R&D center in Israel. It is cooperating with several leading PC, handset and console games outside equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in Europe, USA and the Far East.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Monday, April 11, 2005