Apple Acquires Facial Expression Analysis Startup Emotient

Apple has purchased artificial intelligence startup Emotient, reports The Wall Street Journal. According to its website, Emotient uses artificial intelligence to read emotion through the analysis of facial expressions.

Emotient's technology was previously used by advertisers to determine emotional reactions to advertisements. It let advertisers know whether an ad was getting noticed, how people responded, and whether a reaction was positive or negative. The technology used cameras to capture video that was then analyzed to "learn about the customer's state of mind."

emotient

Emotient is the leader in emotion detection and sentiment analysis, part of a neuromarketing wave that is driving a quantum leap in customer understanding. Our services quantify emotional response, leading to insights and actions that improves your products and how you market them.

An Apple spokesperson confirmed the acquisition to The Wall Street Journal with its standard acquisition statement: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."


It isn't known what Apple will do with Emotient's technology, but the company has made two other semi-related acquisitions in recent months. In October, Apple purchased Perceptio, a startup focused on deep learning and image-recognition systems, and in September, Apple acquired real-time motion capture firm Faceshift, a company that worked on technology to capture facial expressions using 3D sensors.

Related Roundup: Apple Vision Pro
Buyer's Guide: Vision Pro (Neutral)
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Top Rated Comments

Zirel Avatar
123 months ago
What for? People now talk through Kimoji (Kim Kardashian's Emoji App).

Some people reading this:

Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr. Donahue Avatar
123 months ago
Stuff like this worries me. I'm going to put a black piece of tape over my front facing camera.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Thunderbird Avatar
123 months ago
How does this interpret a resting bitch face?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JohnApples Avatar
123 months ago
They're going to use this at the iPhone 7 reveal to detect the crowd's reaction to the 16GB entry-level model.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BornAgainMac Avatar
123 months ago
My iphone can sense my disappointment with Apple on things like the long refreshes of the Mac Pro and Mac Mini when she asks what's wrong.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rrm74001 Avatar
123 months ago
Cook better start practicing his sad face, he will need it when he is fired soon

Under the guidance of Tim Cook, Apple had another record year, generating $233.7 billion in sales, an increase of 28 percent over 2014 and a new high for the company.
Reference: https://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/06/apple-ceo-tim-cook-2015-salary

Tim isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)