I’ve spent 4 full days here in Israel meeting tons of entrepreneurs and startup folks, but if I had to pick one company that made the biggest impression on me it would definitely be Omek Interactive.
The company, which unveiled itself to the public for the first time at the Techonomy 2010 conference held in Tel Aviv earlier this week, was co-founded by a couple over 3.5 years ago. Nevertheless, chances are you’ve never heard that name before.
Chances are you’ve heard of Microsoft’s Project Natal though, the fascinating controller-free gaming and entertainment product Microsoft showcased at E3 2009 in June 2009 and is reportedly set to make its genuine debut at the end of this year.
Well, Omek is a tiny startup that aims to take on the Redmond software giant, their product is ready for market today, and they’re only now starting to talk to press about their well thought-out strategy and demoing their amazing technology.
I was lucky enough to be here in Israel now that the company is finally coming out of the woodworks, so I headed down to their offices near Jerusalem to interview co-founder and CEO Janine Kutliroff (a very impressive woman, to say the least) and record some demos.
In short: they’re developing technology that is nothing short of groundbreaking, and has the potential to change the way we interact with on-screen games and applications. Minority Report-style interactions are much closer to reality than most people think, as you’ll see.
I’ll let you watch the video interview to get an idea of Omek Interactive’s vision (hint: being platform-agnostic and as open to third-party developers as possible is something they’re betting the farm on), and to see the technology in action – the actual demos start around the 6:25 minute mark if you feel like skipping the conversation.
Microsoft, take note. Venture capitalists, you too.
Update: here’s a bonus video, made by Robert Scoble at the Techonomy event: