An Apple Store in NYC. Photo: Marlith.

American tech giant Apple is in talks to buy Israel-based PrimeSense, a developer of chips that enable three-dimensional machine vision, for $280 million, Israel’s Calcalist website reported Tuesday.

Apple engineering executives visited PrimeSense in July, signalling a serious level of commitment considering the individuals who were part of the delegation would not normally make such a trip, Calcalist said.

PrimeSense has raised $85 million from Israeli and U.S. venture capital funds, Calcalist noted.

The company has developed an integrated system which gives digital devices the ability to observe a scene in three dimensions. The technology has been used in Microsoft’s Xbox.