BioInteractive Technologies Fastracks Development with Invitation to Techstars Anywhere

A Canadian company is partnering up with a well-known accelerator to develop their product and get it ready for the market.

BioInteractive Technologies has been selected to join the 2018 Q1 Techstars Anywhere program, allowing the company to grow and flourish with the resources offered by one of the world’s leading incubation programs. Based in Vancouver and founded by Simon Fraser University (SFU) graduates, BioInteractive creates hands-free camera-free gesture recognition wearables.

The product is called the TENZR and represents a new way for human-machine interaction. Its sensing technology recognizes when a user gestures with their hand, permitting them to control and guide mixed reality environments. It can also apply to other areas including complex robotic systems, home appliances, and even medical equipment within operating rooms.

TENZR can recognize six gestures out of the box: hand open, hand closed, up, down, left and right.

“Our proprietary sensor fusion platform and artificial intelligence-based algorithms allow us to detect gestures when donned at the wrist, without the need for calibration, or any external beacons and cameras,” said Gautam Sadarangani, BioInteractive’s CTO. “TENZR allows us to expand beyond the hand-held controller, mouse, keyboard, voice control and camera-tracking systems to include unconstrained gesture recognition.”

“Gestures are in fact complementary to the use of language when communicating, and together will allow us to interact with technology intuitively and naturally.”

The company is also an incubator client of SFU’s Coast Capital Savings Venture Connection. They are one of six finalists for a final prize that will be announced on February 15. The winner will receive a $35,000 prize package that includes cash, legal services, accounting services and more.

The invitation to join Techstars Anywhere lets BioInteractive benefit from hands-on mentorship, funding, and permanent access to the Techstars network that features well-known and established businesses. The acceptance rate is less than one per cent.

“We are honoured and excited to join the Techstars family, and look forward to being a part of their network of amazing founders, mentors, and investors,” says Lukas-Karim Merhi, CEO of BioInteractive. “This will allow our company to achieve its vision to become the leading wearable in gesture recognition, and the de-facto controller of the next decade.”

BioInteractive joins companies all around the world who have been invited to the newest cohort of Techstars including several companies in the latest Toronto program.