Miami-based facial biometrics developer Kairos has acquired IMRSV, a firm specializing in emotion analysis. In a statement, Kairos asserted that the acquisition makes it “the only facial biometrics company in the world offering both facial recognition and emotion analysis tools for developers.”
To that end, Kairos has released an SDK, two new APIs, and analytics software – Kairos Crowd Analytics SDK, Kairos Face Recognition API, Kairos Emotion Analysis API, and IMRSV camera-based analytics software, respectively. Speaking on these developments, Kairos CEO Brian Brackeen emphasized the pioneering nature of combining facial recognition and emotion analytics technologies, asserting that the company believes “facial biometrics can go beyond security and be the driving force that humanizes technology while changing the way we interact with computers.” IMRSV’s founder, Jason Sosa, added, “Our thinking is a smarter world makes for a better world, and we’re fans of that future.”
That positive outlook could prove important in selling the technology going forward. While some of the more novel applications of facial-emotional recognition technology have been the source of amusement recently – as in the case of the biometric book cover that only opens for non-judgmental facial expressions, or the use of this technology in a comedy club to monitor audience laughter – there are also more commercial deployments on the horizon that could be perceived by consumers as creepy. In any case, Sosa’s further assertion that these technologies have “enormous potential to transform countless industries” could very likely prove true.
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April 7, 2015 – by Alex Perala
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