During the week of May 8, 2010, Israel was invited to join the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development along with Slovenia and Estonia. Israel’s membership in the international organization is expected to increase outside investments in the country. Multi-touch innovator N-Trig demoed new advanced multi-touch gestures that will be included in laptops later this year and it was leaked that Microsoft will release Project Natal also later this year. For these stories and more, see this week’s 12 Israel-related headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Israel’s Erdan Sees China Market in Clean Technology (Update1)

2. China’s Suntech, Israel Electric May Team Up on Solar Power

3. Multimatrix Invests Millions In Israel’s Small Wind Market

Investments and Economy
4. Better Place Closes Massive $350M Round

5. Emefcy Raises $5 million For Commercial “Green” Sewage Treatment Pilot Plant

6. AudioCodes to acquire Natural Speech Communication

7. Israel unanimously invited to OECD

Information Technology
8. N-trig demos advanced N-act multitouch gestures, coming to laptops and tablets later this year

9. What Silicon Valley could learn from these 14 Israeli companies

10. Clarizen Selected as a Winner of 2010 CODiE Awards in Project Management

Miscellaneous
11. Beating the copycats

12. Microsoft Plans Worldwide Launch Of Project Natal In October

According to a news release from Amazon.com, the Nintendo Wii topped the 2007 Video Games list of “bestselling products,” “most positively reviewed,” and “most-wished-for.” This domination isn’t surprising as the game console’s innovative remote sensor provides users with the most realistic gaming experience on the market by giving users the opportunity to just “wave, point, rumble and listen”.

While it is likely that in 2008, the Nintendo Wii will continue to hold its ground and gain more, two Israeli companies, Prime Sense and 3DV Systems are at the forefront of the next revolution in motion sensing and gaming and intend to challenge the success of the Wii in the next few years.

Both companies have developed motion and depth sensors that can turn a 2D gaming experience into a more interactive 3D one, without having to use a controller. They were also both present at the CES conference that unveils the latest consumer electronic technology last week and have been competing for deals with major gaming console companies, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo to use their technology.

Before the CES conference, VC Cafe blogger, Eze Vidra predicted that 3DV Systems would be a company that would garner a lot of media coverage at the event. He was right. At the CES show, 3DV Systems had an interactive booth that showcased its relatively inexpensive and recently released, ZCam. Anyone passing by the booth at the event, including media members, had the opportunity to interact with it or watch others do so.

Aside from gaming, 3DV Systems and Prime Sense have plans to apply their technologies to other fields that can benefit from advanced real-time sensor technologies, such as automotive-safety, security and robotics. In the next few years, look for the 3DV Systems or Prime Sense brand to be part of your virtual reality experience in gaming and any of these other fields.