Facebook acquires face recognition technology provider FacioMetrics

Facebook has acquired a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff company called FacioMetrics aimed at enhancing its photo and video capabilities.

FacioMetrics is popular for developing tools for understanding facial behavior and demographic from videos, detection, and even letting you swap faces. The startup made an app called Intraface that could detect seven different emotions in people’s faces, but apparently, it has been removed from the app stores now.

“How people share and communicate is changing and things like masks and other effects allow people to express themselves in fun and creative ways,” said a Facebook spokesperson in a statement. “We’re excited to welcome the Faciometrics team who will help bring more fun effects to photos and videos and build even more engaging sharing experiences on Facebook.”

This isn’t Facebook’s first foray into the image recognition space. The news comes on the heels of Zuckerberg’s team demonstrating Prisma-like filters for its live video product. At this year’s WSJD Live conference, it also showcased a new app which would let you transfer the style of an artist, such as Rembrandt onto your image using Convolutional Neural Network and computer vision.

Facebook and Snapchat have been constantly vying against each other in the AR space and FacioMetrics will surely add to Facebook’s photo and video capabilities.

“We started FacioMetrics to respond to the increasing interest and demand for facial image analysis – with all kinds of applications including augmented/virtual reality, animation, audience reaction measurement, and others. We began our research at Carnegie Mellon University developing state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning algorithms for facial image analysis. Over time, we have successfully developed and integrated this cutting-edge technology into battery-friendly and efficient mobile applications, and also created new applications of this technology, said FacioMetrics chief executive Fernando De La Torre.

“Now, we’re taking a big step forward by joining the team at Facebook,” he added.

According to The Greensburg Tribune Review that first spotted the acquisition, De la Torre’s research and an app could be used to spot drowsy drivers, automatically analyze focus groups, detect depression, and improve avatars in video games.