Hand position and movement in devices can be measured in many different ways, including wristbands, rings, RADAR, LIDAR, and cameras. Initially, focused on gesture-enabling off-the-shelf smartwatches and XR devices, Helsinki-based Doublepoint aims to solve the most vexing input problems in a simple way.
The startup does this by using an extremely sensitive and mechanically-based sensor in a smart wristband to detect movement, position and microvibrations.
Raises €3M funding
Now Doublepoint has raised a total of €3 million funding from a range of angel investors and VCs from across Finland and Europe. The notable investors include FOV Ventures, Superangel VC, Superhero Capital (that backed Xceed), Sune Alstrup, Timo Rein, Business Finland, and others.
In addition to the investment, the company has emerged from stealth after spending the over 3 years developing a patent-pending software platform enabling intuitive, zero learning-curve gesture recognition.
“We first founded Doublepoint under the stealth name of ‘Port 6’ to keep our competitors guessing and under the sole focus of gesture-enabling AR devices. We have since found a ready and eager market in smart watches as well as XR and we have finally revealed our production name, full funding and full mission. We are extremely grateful to our VCs for the most recent influx of capital and their supreme confidence in our team, technology and vision,” said Ohto Pentikäinen, CEO of Doublepoint Oy.
Touch interface for next-gen devices
Founded by Jamin Hu and Ohto Pentikäinen in 2020, Doublepoint is developing software to turn smartwatches into next generation gesture input devices for Augmented Reality, consumer electronics, and more. It focuses on bringing these low effort, tactile, and zero learning-curve interactions to Android Wear OS powered smartwatches.
Doublepoint uses built in sensors to monitor tendons and vibrations and does not require any computer vision sensors outside of the watch. The wristband-based technology instead focuses on haptic feedback that occurs only when you touch something. This is a simpler, inexpensive and more robust offering than other, optically-based solutions.
In addition to this, Doublepoint offers a free Touch SDK, which turns existing smartwatches into actual input devices and provides it as a download on the company’s website.
Currently, it offers a highly-advanced machine learning algorithm that accurately detects touch-based microgestures, including pinch, surface interactions and more. It is also capable of ray-casting using generic smartwatch sensors and minimal compute cycles from their embedded CPU.
Headquartered in Helsinki, the company has a total of 11 employees situated in Finland, Sweden, Germany, and the UK.
