Apple Inc. continues to expand. It has just recently bought an artificial intelligence start-up called Emotient. Emotient is an artificial intelligence technology that specially interprets the emotions of individuals as they engage in activities such as watching videos or other media related things.
Emotient was founded in 2012 in San Diego by six researchers from the University of California and has received quite a reasonable amount of recognition from people. It has been granted patents that cover areas like the use of Al to read images and to find out if two people would be compatible. According to blog posts on the official website of Emotient (which has been taken down now that Apple acquired the start-up) it was described that the start-up “harvests faces to create emotion aware machines.”
Tests were carried out by the member’s crowd funding the project, and emotions contained in 100,000 images were labeled each day. In a press conference held on May 2015, Emotient stated that this system quickly converts human intelligence into artificial intelligence.
Apple gave confirmation of the purchase on Thursday. However, Apple didn’t elaborate on its plans for the start-up, neither did they release any terms. Apple is a pioneer in the technology realm, and their unending love for smart devices makes them unstoppable. Artificial intelligence has become an important aspect of the company’s agenda, as the company looks to build brilliant software that can keep all of its numerous products unified.
Emotient is not the first Al start-up to be acquired by Apple. In the past months, Apple successfully acquired two other Al start-ups: VocalIQ and Perceptio. The company has also engaged in acquiring more people to carry out advanced research in the Emotient field.
Emotient had initially stated that its technology could help out a lot in the medical and educational sector, but with the turn of events, Apple might end up turning the technology into something that diverts far from the company’s initial goal.
The technology has been used and tested in a Republican presidential candidate debate, and the results received stated that Donald Trump “predominantly conveyed anger” and Ted Cruz “almost excessively expressed sadness” on the Fox News broadcast.
It was brought to light in the Wall Street Journal that Apple had acquired Emotient, stating that Apple “buys smaller companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
Considering past deals and Apple’s new acquisition, most analysts believe that an “augmented reality system,” in which virtual images are intertwined with reality, might end up in Apple’s retail stores (which are currently undergoing an overhaul from the former chief of Burberry, Angela Ahrendts.)
Apple isn’t the only company that is exploring the emotion technology realm. Large tech companies have done their own research, like Microsoft’s Oxford cloud service project. IBM is also not lacking in developing products that can determine how a person is feeling by simply using the sound of their voice.
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