Hillcrest Labs Selected by Lenovo to Bring Motion, Gesture and Cursor Control to Smart TVs

ROCKVILLE, Md., April 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Hillcrest Labs announced today that Lenovo's new line of Smart TVs is using Hillcrest's patented Freespace® in-air pointing and motion control software. Freespace enables point-and-click, gesture and motion control of Smart TVs through simple in-air movements of a remote control. Lenovo's Freespace-enabled Smart TVs include the new S9 Smart TV that was unveiled on April 16 for sale across China.

Freespace will form the foundation of Lenovo's Smart TV user experience and enable improved content navigation, better gaming options, and simple Web browsing. It provides simple to use point-and-click controls and 3D motion tracking optimized for consumers in the living room environment. This is particularly important for Android™ TVs, as the technology replicates the touch and tilt based controls commonly used by Android apps on other devices.  

"We are very proud that Lenovo has chosen Freespace motion interface technology as the foundation of its Smart TV user interface," said Dan Simpkins, CEO of Hillcrest Labs. "A strong brand, spirit of innovation, and focus on quality will undoubtedly establish Lenovo as a Smart TV market leader. We are pleased that our products and intellectual property will be used throughout Lenovo's impressive Smart TV product line."

"Smart TV adoption continues at a tremendous pace, and we fully intend to take a leadership role in this market," said Xiong Wen, General Manager of Digital Home Business Unit at Lenovo. "Hillcrest is a proven global leader in motion-enabled TV products with essential intellectual property that enables key features in these products. Moving forward, Freespace will be a core technology for our Smart TVs. Together, we will deliver the best user interfaces for TV, Web, and apps across Smart TVs."

Lenovo's choice of Freespace is further evidence of the technology's importance across advanced Smart TV platforms. It also marks another major, Asia-based consumer electronics OEM to adopt Hillcrest's technology. To support this growing market, Hillcrest also announced today that it will open a new regional office based in Taiwan, which will address the local demand for Freespace in Smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, wearable electronics, and more. The office will consist of both sales and technical support staff to support Hillcrest's growing customer base in the region.

Hillcrest has a commanding worldwide intellectual property portfolio that includes over 110 granted out of over 220 total filed patents exclusively owned by Hillcrest Labs. This includes patents which are critical to the orientation compensation, automatic calibration and intelligent motion stabilization features that ensure motion control technology is simple and intuitive to use on Smart TVs.

Additional information about Lenovo Smart TVs can be found at: tv.lenovo.com.cn. Additional information about Hillcrest Labs can be found at: www.HillcrestLabs.com.

About Hillcrest Labs:
Hillcrest Labs is the leading global supplier of software and hardware for motion-enabled products. Our Freespace® technology transforms human movement into high quality, application-ready motion information. With a decade of development and many unique patented features, products come to life with Freespace motion. Companies that have licensed or use Hillcrest's motion technology include: Atmel, Eastman Kodak, Hisense, Intel, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Logitech, Oppo, Roku, SMK Electronics, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., TCL Multimedia, Universal Electronics (UEI), and others.

Hillcrest has received numerous awards and recognitions including the prestigious CES Innovations Honoree Award multiple times, IMS Research's TV Innovation Awards, EE Times' ACE Award, PC World's 100 Best Products and Greatest Tech Designs, Popular Mechanics' Editors Choice, ECN's Reader's Choice Tech, and many others. Additional information about Hillcrest's broad portfolio of motion control products is available at: www.HillcrestLabs.com. Follow Hillcrest on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HillcrestLabs or Twitter at @HillcrestLabs.

About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a US$34 billion personal technology company – the largest PC maker worldwide and an emerging PC Plus leader – serving customers in more than 160 countries. Dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices, Lenovo's business is built on product innovation, a highly-efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group's acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smartphones. Lenovo, a global Fortune 500 company, has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.

Hillcrest Labs, Freespace, and MotionEngine are trademarks of Hillcrest Laboratories, Inc. All other company names and trademarks remain property of their respective owners

SOURCE Hillcrest Labs