Las Vegas, NV, January 10, 2012 – Omek Interactive (www.omekinteractive.com), the leading provider of gesture recognition and body tracking technology, and Jinni Media (www.jinni.com), the maker of the first and only taste-and-mood based engine powering video discovery, today announced the formation of a partnership to deliver a next-generation video content navigation system for consumer electronics manufacturers and content service providers.

The prototype solution, which is being demonstrated at the Omek CES booth and the two companies’ CES hospitality suites, combines Omek’s Beckon™ technology with Jinni’s unique semantic discovery engine for movies and TV shows, creating a gesture-enabled video discovery interface. The result allows viewers a natural and intuitive way to discover the film and television content that is best attuned to their tastes and moods, by using gestures to find and refine selections based on rich combinations of attributes (such as “thought provoking love story” or “clever cons and scams”) that go far beyond standard genres or popular categories typically used in content selection guides. The gesture control system also allows users to control the video stream, once selected, allowing them to play, pause, rewind and exit back to the video discovery interface.

The demonstration solution also simulates the next phase in the product’s development, which will use Omek Beckon technology to distinguish between different individuals based on their skeletal dimensions and other physical attributes. Omek enables the user to be identified and “recognized” by his TV, allowing the interface to retrieve that user’s pre-calculated set of “tastes” created by Jinni’s proprietary Taste Profile algorithms, resulting in an effortless selection of recommendations, reflecting his semantic taste based on previous preferences. Households will be able to set up profiles for each family member, and the Jinni semantic discovery engine will provide unique recommendations for each individual or, when needed, will cross-reference between profiles in order to deliver recommendations that reflect the tastes of all who are gathered round the TV at any given moment. This will be the ideal customized video guide for families and multi-member households, offering the perfect solution for “family night” or “date night.” As facial gestures express a person’s mood, and that mood defines the content he will most likely want to watch, the future possibilities for a product that brings together the approaches of both companies are endless.

“Through our partnership with Jinni, we are redefining the living room experience. Our two technologies combined put the consumer in the power seat, no longer encumbered by remote controls or at the mercy of scheduled programming and pre-packaged content.” said Jonathan Epstein, president of Omek.

“Jinni has already changed the way that all of us find the video content that is right for each of us, by providing a much more natural way of considering our tastes and moods,” said Yosi Glick, Jinni’s CEO and Co-Founder. “By working with Omek, we’re further enhancing the experience of using our system in a way that makes it more natural, personalized, and fun. Gesture and body language is a natural way to express one’s current mood or state of mind.”

The joint Omek-Jinni prototype will be available for viewing at CES 2012 in the Omek booth, #3619 in the LVCC North Hall, and by appointment at Omek’s and Jinni’s hospitality suites.

About Omek Interactive

Omek is transforming the way people interact with their devices and applications, by providing tools and technology that enable manufacturers and software developers to add gesture-based interfaces to their products. Omek’s gesture recognition and body tracking software is being incorporated into TVs, set-top boxes, computers and peripherals, smartphones, interactive signs, and medical and fitness devices – and into the content and applications that run on these devices. Omek’s tools work with all major 3D cameras, and support a broad range of processors and operating systems – giving customers the flexibility to take advantage of the latest technology, while maintaining portability for their applications. A privately held company, Omek is headquartered in Bet Shemesh, Israel, and has offices in San Francisco and Taipei. For more information, visit www.omekinteractive.com.

About Jinni Media

Jinni is the first and only taste-and-mood based engine powering video discovery. Using content genetics and nuanced understanding of user tastes, the Jinni engine powers a uniquely intuitive, personalized experience that increases content consumption and reduces churn. The Jinni service is powered by the Entertainment Genome, containing thousands of genes that are assigned to each title to describe mood, style, plot, setting and more; this is a rich alternative to the usual genre language. New titles are automatically indexed via analysis of user reviews and synopses, using a proprietary Natural Language Processing solution. Jinni’s content discovery solution was voted “Best Product Idea” at CableLabs last year. Jinni is a Webby Awards honoree, a Red Herring 100 Europe winner, an OnHollywood 100 winner, a SXSW Web Awards nominee, a TechCrunch Europas nominee and was selected as the best movie recommendation engine by CNET and Lifehacker. To see our award winning engine at work, visit www.jinni.com.

Las Vegas, NV, January 9, 2012 – Side-Kick (www.sidekick.co.il), a leading developer and publisher of motion games, and Omek Interactive (www.omekinteractive.com), the leading provider of gesture recognition and body tracking technology, announced today that Side-Kick will be adding Omek’s Beckon middleware to its suite of existing motion games, and will use Beckon technology in future titles.

Omek’s Beckon technology enables developers to add gesture control and motion tracking interfaces to their games and applications that will work across all of major 3D cameras, including cameras from Panasonic, PMD, Softkinetic, ASUS, InVision, and PrimeSense as well as the Microsoft Kinect. By working with Beckon, Side-Kick games will now be able to run on a broader array of current and planned consumer devices utilizing gesture recognition technology, such as smart TVs, game consoles, and set-top boxes.

The market for 3D cameras is expanding rapidly, as more consumer electronics manufacturers want to deliver motion gaming and gesture control capabilities in their products, and a number of new 3D cameras are now available to serve that demand, based on both structured light and time-of-flight technologies.  This increased competition among 3D camera companies is helping to accelerate OEM adoption, as more price and performance options become available. To enable gesture recognition and motion gaming on these cameras, developers require middleware, such as Omek’s Beckon, which interprets the positions and movements of people in front of the cameras.

“Gesture recognition technology has a myriad of applications,” said Jonathan Epstein, president of Omek, “but in the world of televisions and the devices that attach to them, motion gaming is one of the key drivers. By working with Side-Kick, Omek is expanding the number of motion gaming titles that our OEM partners can deliver to their consumers, no matter which 3D camera they choose to deploy.”

“Side-Kick is committed to delivering the best motion gaming experiences to consumers, no matter where and when they play,” added Guy Bendov, CEO of Side-Kick. “By working with Omek Beckon, we’re able to deliver these experiences to many more consumers, across all the 3D cameras and on both PC and embedded processors.”

Both Omek and Side-Kick will be demonstrating Side-Kick games at the Consumer Electronics Show, Jan 9-12 in Las Vegas, at Omek’s booth (LVCC North Hall #3619) and at Omek’s and Side-Kick’s hospitality suites.

About Omek Interactive

Omek is transforming the way people interact with their devices and applications, by providing tools and technology that enable manufacturers and software developers to add gesture-based interfaces to their products. Omek’s gesture recognition and body tracking software is being incorporated into TVs, set-top boxes, computers and peripherals, smartphones, interactive signs, and medical and fitness devices – and into the content and applications that run on these devices. Omek’s tools work with all major 3D cameras, and support a broad range of processors and operating systems – giving customers the flexibility to take advantage of the latest technology, while maintaining portability for their applications. A privately held company, Omek is headquartered in Bet Shemesh, Israel, and has offices in San Francisco and Taipei. For more information, visit www.omekinteractive.com.

About Side-Kick

Side-Kick is a developer and aggregator of video games for Smart TVs, PCs and game consoles with motion-control interfaces. Side-Kick’s offers a large portfolio of games for Microsoft’s Kinect, Asus’s Xtion and for a wide range of depth and RGB cameras as well as motion-remotes. Side-Kick distributes quality games based on its own IP as well as partnerships with leading mobile game developers who look to expend their IP to Smart TVs. Side-Kick clients include major video game publishers and PC and TV makers as well as technology providers such as Omek Interactive, PrimeSense and XTR3D. For more information please visit http://www.sidekick.co.il.

Las Vegas, NV, January 9, 2012 – Omek Interactive (www.omekinteractive.com), the leading provider of gesture recognition and body tracking technology, and Ubitus (www.ubitus.net), the software platform leader for fixed-mobile convergence applications, today announced the formation of a partnership to deliver cloud-based gesture-enabled gaming services for TVs, set-top boxes, gaming consoles, and the service operators providing content to those devices.

The partnership will provide a rich library of motion gaming content for the growing array of devices which are being equipped with 3D cameras, including both games and applications specifically built for motion and gesture control as well as adaptations of many of the games available on Ubitus’ GameCloud® service today. The service combines Omek’s Beckon™ technology, which enables gesture gaming experiences across all of the major 3D cameras, and Ubitus’ GameCloud technology, which renders games that require graphical processing on the cloud server and processes gaming media into streaming video. As a result, the full library of gesture-enabled content will be available to consumers on any living room device, regardless of what 3D camera and processor it is equipped with.

For hardware OEMs and content service providers, the service will dramatically expand the amount of gesture-enabled games and applications which they can offer their consumers. For developers of motion games, the service will allow their products to be distributed across a wide array of platforms, without requiring any recoding or adaptation for specific platforms.  Consumers will benefit from a significantly increased array of motion gaming options, and the ability to play these games not only on their TV screens but on the many tablets and smartphones that GameCloud technology also supports.

“The combination of cloud gaming and gesture interfaces solves many problems for hardware OEMs looking for motion gaming content that can work across their different devices,” said Jonathan Epstein, president of Omek, “and for motion gaming developers looking to build the widest market for their games. The ultimate winner is the consumer, who will get more interactive experiences that they can enjoy with a controller we all have – our own bodies.”

“Ubitus shares the same values with Omek — making gaming easier, without time and place restrictions. We are excited about introducing this combination of cloud gaming and gesture interfaces at 2012 CES,” said Wesley Kuo, CEO of Ubitus. “Ubitus will work closely with Omek on enabling gaming and educational titles in 2012. The first joint service of cloud-based motion services will be deployed as early as second quarter of 2012. Without the requirement for high-end platforms and complicated controllers, all users need for the cloud-based motion services are a stable internet environment and themselves.”

Ubitus and Omek will be showing a demonstration of the service at CES 2012, at their respective hospitality suites. OEMs and service providers interested in viewing the demonstration should make an appointment with Leo Hsu, Omek vice president, at lhsu@omekinteractive.com.

About Omek Interactive

Omek is transforming the way people interact with their devices and applications, by providing tools and technology that enable manufacturers and software developers to add gesture-based interfaces to their products. Omek’s gesture recognition and body tracking software is being incorporated into TVs, set-top boxes, computers and peripherals, smartphones, interactive signs, and medical and fitness devices – and into the content and applications that run on these devices. Omek’s tools work with all major 3D cameras, and support a broad range of processors and operating systems – giving customers the flexibility to take advantage of the latest technology, while maintaining portability for their applications. A privately held company, Omek is headquartered in Bet Shemesh, Israel, and has offices in San Francisco and Taipei. For more information, visit www.omekinteractive.com.

About Ubitus

Ubitus Inc., the software platform leader for fixed-mobile convergence(FMC) applications, offers innovative cloud computing solutions for devices manufacturers, wired/wireless communication service providers, telecommunication operators and digital content developers. Ubitus’s unique suite of techonologies offer users series of real-time, seamless, convenient, interactive and fun entertainment on multimedia and gaming on low-end PC, connected TV and mobile devices. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, the company now has expanded to over 150 employees and offices in Tokyo, Beijing, Guangzhou and Seoul. More information is available at www.ubitus.net.

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The Omek Beckon™ Development Suite is a full-featured set of middleware and tools that enables you to quickly and efficiently deploy gesture recognition and full body tracking in your applications and devices. The suite includes the Beckon SDK, the Beckon Gesture Authoring Toolkit, and a full set of documentation and tutorials.

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