Apple acquires ‘Emotient’ facial expression & emotion detection technology

Emotient, which was backed by Handbag and Intel Capital, had developed applications for Google Glass and other platforms to be able to tell what a person was feeling based on their facial expression. Apple did not disclose how much it paid for Emotient.

The company used its artificial intelligence technology to read the emotions on the faces of people, primarily for advertising and marketing purposes, such as measuring a customer’s response to ads and products. The company is at the vanguard of a new wave of emotion analysis that will lead to a quantum leap in customer understanding and emotion-aware computing’.

The company confirmed the acquisition in a statement, but failed to provide further details.

Emotient emphasizes that “emotions drive spending”, highlighting its value proposition when it comes to market research.

Also making headlines was Apple announcing the annual pay of its top executives.

“When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for the company confirmed the purchase and gave the WSJ Apple’s usual response, saying, “[Apple] buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our goal or plans”. According to the publication, it has been mostly used to help advertisers determine how consumers react to ads.

Less than a week into 2016 and Apple has already made its first startup purchase of the year.

The use of face-scanning technology has been a privacy concern for many startups, although it’s unclear what Apple intends to do with the company now that it can scan anonymously.

Emotient is the leader in emotion detection and sentiment analysis based on facial expressions.