Precise Biometrics licenses gesture tracking from Crunchfish in expansion of palm tech

As part of its expansion into palm biometrics, Precise Biometrics has signed a long-term licensing agreement with Crunchfish, a Swedish company that develops a digital cash product and – until recently – gesture tracking technology.

A release says the agreement centers around the XR Skeleton hand tracking product, described by Crunchfish as “a high-end full skeleton gesture software that tracks 21 points on each hand in 3 dimensions with measured distances between each point.” It gives Precise Biometrics access to the XR Skeleton 3’s source code, as well as a dataset of real and synthetic hands for algorithmic training.

The deal will generate revenue for Crunchfish from Precise Biometrics’ sales of palm recognition products that include XR Skeleton, starting in 2025 and running until 2032. The plan is for Precise Biometrics to integrate XR Skeleton’s hand tracking into a palm recognition product to be released next year.

Precise deployments give afterlife to abandoned gesture interaction tech

Designed for high-end AR glasses and VR devices, XR Skeleton enables interaction with virtual objects, and is also capable of detecting “a large variety” of hand poses. It is also being sunsetted, as Crunchfgish divests from its gesture business to focus on payments. The company had originally planned to sell its gesture interaction subsidiary, but has apparently opted for licensing deals instead.

As such, the deal nets Crunchfish both up-front cash and an ongoing revenue stream for its gesture tech before closing up further business development on the file. Precise Biometrics will pay Crunchfish a fee of 200,000SEK (US$18,365) to cover packaging, delivery and training efforts. The Swedish firm, which will not be directly involved with Precise Biometrics’ integrations after initial training, also retains IP rights to XR Skeleton, meaning the existing tech could still be offered to other firms in the future.

“It feels good to sign a deal for our gesture technology as part of closing down the business unit,” says Crunchfish’s COO Patrik Lindeberg. “The deal is also ideal from the perspective that Precise Biometrics has world leading competence within the field of image processing, so no support demands will be required from us, which is in line with the strategy to focus Crunchfish’s business around the Digital Cash offering.”

In other words, Crunchfish is cutting and running from biometrics, and hoping to squeeze what revenue it can out of its work in gesture tech to date.

Keep calm and pay with your palm

In going all-in on digital cash, however, it risks missing a potential boom in palm-based tech for use by retailers, financial institutions and other businesses. Major industry players such as Tencent, Visa, Amazon, J.P. Morgan, and Mastercard are increasingly supporting palm-based payment systems.

Precise has gone the opposite direction as Crunchfish, this year adding palm biometrics as a third modality for multi-factor authentication, alongside face and fingerprint biometrics. In March, it was revealed that California-based palm recognition scanner-maker Hand.ID would be one of the Lund-headquartered firm’s initial development partners.

The firm has seen incremental gains in 2024, reporting net sales of 20.6 million Swedish kronor (US$1.97 million) in Q2, up from SEK 17.9 million ($1.71 million) in Q2 2023.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Crunchfish  |  gesture recognition  |  licensing  |  palm biometrics  |  palm recognition  |  Precise Biometrics