In November 2015, the company confirmed it had bought Faceshift, a Swiss startup that uses real-time motion capture technology to captures a person’s facial expressions in order to create CGI avatars and other figures.Īssuming this isn't all part of a plan to build Skynet, these acquisitions suggest that AI will play an even bigger role in Apple’s future products. (A demo from Faceshift, a facial recognition company that Apple bought.Intel UK/YouTube). In October last year, the iPhone maker bought Perceptio, a small startup company specializing in technology that lets companies run artificial intelligence systems on smartphones without needing to share much user data.Īpple has also bought VocallQ - a firm that specializes in natural language processing as it applies to automobiles - and mapping data analytics startup Mapsense.
The company rolled out its usual generic statement after the acquisition: “ buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”Īpple has acquired a series of companies over the last 12 months that have a focus on AI systems. It could be used on its own iAds platform, photo apps, or even implemented into FaceTime. Although we can clearly see Cupertino focusing on a number of skunkworks initiatives (e.g., Project Titan, virtual reality-Faceshift, etc.), in 2016 and not pursuing major M&A prospects, with 200. It’s not clear what plans Apple has for Emotient’s technology. The camera on the device was used to identify and process facial expressions and provide an emotional read-out on the small screen. VTech hacked and 4.8 million accounts compromised, links to children Children toy maker VTech hacked 9 days before they even knew what happened, leaking information on 200,000 kids 05.
The tech has also been tested by doctors to interpret signs of pain in patients who are unable to express themselves.Įmotient had previously been tested on Google Glass as a way to find out what emotions people around you were feeling by analyzing their faces. It’s primarily sold to advertisers and marketers who use it to assess consumers reactions to ads and products.
for an undisclosed sum, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.Įmotient’s AI technology is used to determine a person’s emotions just by analyzing their facial expressions. The Cupertino-based firm has bought San Deigo startup Emotient Inc. They may also have a special chip for handling machine learning applications.Apple has made its first acquisition of 2016, and it's another company specializing in artificial intelligence. This is a morph Daz3d targets for Faceshift 2015.1That allow you to automatically ajust all the necessary expressions for capture the animationsMorph targets. They are 36 (46 total - 10 for the eyelids) FaceShift control channels.
Future iPhones may also have what Apple calls a ProMotion screen, which has a higher refresh rate, Bloomberg reported. This dictionay maps the full value (1.0) of a FaceShift control channel to a set of vectors to apply to the MakeHuman face control rig. It’s like the world decided to play ’52 card pickup’ but with tragedy. Apple's technology is advanced enough that it is fast and can work if the phone is lying flat on a table, according to the Bloomberg report.Īpple is expected to launch an iPhone this fall with a complete redesign, including wireless charging, and a screen that takes up more of the front of the phone. I don’t imagine I need to tell you it’s been a hell of a quarter, existentially speaking. Samsung's facial recognition feature, for example, can be fooled by a piece of paper. The facial scanning feature would have to be better than those designed by Apple's rivals. However, the feature may not be ready in time for this year's models, according to the report. It would be able to open secure apps and authenticate payments like Apple Pay, which are currently locked through the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The facial-scanning feature would replace the fingerprint sensor used on current iPhones, according to Bloomberg. It doesn't look like the redesigned iPhone scheduled to launch this fall will have Apple's Touch ID fingerprint sensor, an analyst at KGI Securities said in a report Monday.