Navneet Dalal, CEO of Flutter, has announced Google’s takeover of his company. Flutter is a webcam gesture app that uses hand signals and movements to control media playback on computers, using a webcam that recognizes hand movements. The app has been praised by many including Wired and Cult of Mac and was even a Best of 2012 app on the App Store.
Flutter is an extremely simple app to use, especially when wirelessly controlling music. Simply put your hand up to stop the media playback, point your thumb right for “next” and left for “previous.” The company announced on its website, “Today, we are thrilled to announce that we will be continuing our research at Google. We share Google’s passion for 10x thinking, and we’re excited to add their rocket fuel to our journey.” The company adopts a ‘cool’ stance, with a minimalist feel. Navneet added in the announcement, “Even after we launched our first app, we didn’t stop our research; your enthusiasm and support pushed us to continue to do better. We’re inspired everyday when we hear, for example, that Flutter makes you feel like a superhero — because any sufficiently advanced technology should be indistinguishable from magic, right?”
The app works with iTunes, Spotify, Rdio, VLC, Keynote, Winamp, Windows Media Player, and, with a Chrome extension, Youtube, Netflix, Pandora, and Grooveshark. It is said that Google paid a total of $40 million for the company and will integrate its use into certain Google products. The company has not announced specific usage of Flutter in Google, so many ponder on what may become of this great app. It’s unclear if Google will keep Flutter working on standalone apps, or whether the technology will get integrated further into its own software and hardware. A Google spokesperson said, “We’re really impressed by the Flutter team’s ability to design new technology based on cutting-edge research. We look forward to supporting and collaborating on their research efforts at Google.”
