Affectiva Strengthens Emotion AI Portfolio with Smart Eye Acquisition for $73.5 Million
Face Recognition Emotion AI Creator Affectiva Acquires Smart Eye for $73.5M
Affectiva, a leading innovator in Emotion AI, has completed the acquisition of Smart Eye for $73.5 million. This partnership promises to enhance Affectiva’s technology, which is capable of interpreting human emotions, cognitive states, and interactions with various objects by analyzing facial and vocal expressions. The AI system has been developed using over 10 million face videos sourced from 90 different countries.
Smart Eye specializes in eye-tracking technology that aims to understand and predict human intentions and actions, striving to improve interactions between people and machines for a more sustainable future. The combination of Affectiva’s Emotion AI with Smart Eye’s eye-tracking capabilities holds the potential to significantly transform the way humans engage with technology, thus enhancing accessibility, functionality, and safety.
Dr. Rana el Kaliouby, Co-Founder and CEO of Affectiva, expressed excitement about the merger, viewing it as a crucial step in the company’s journey. She highlighted the shared values, visions, and cultures that both organizations possess, emphasizing that the AI being developed today is poised to become an integral part of our daily technological engagements.
Smart Eye boasts over 20 years of experience in the field, particularly in providing Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS) for the automotive industry. Currently, the company has secured 84 production contracts with 12 of the largest global automotive manufacturers.
Martin Krantz, Founder and CEO of Smart Eye, recognized Affectiva as a vital player in the evolving Interior Sensing domain, which monitors the entire cabin environment. He noted that this collaboration could prove pivotal for enhancing road safety and bridging the gap between humans and machinery.
Affectiva has been intensifying its focus on the automotive sector, an area ripe for innovation with the emergence of connected and self-driving vehicles. Earlier this year, the company was granted six patents aimed at assessing the awareness and emotional states of vehicle occupants.
Gabi Zijderveld, CMO of Affectiva, shared insights about their automotive AI, which was the first to provide multi-modal in-cabin sensing solutions. By utilizing in-car cameras to assess the conditions of drivers and passengers in real-time, this technology enhances road safety by identifying risky behaviors, such as drowsiness or distraction, and improving overall passenger comfort.
In light of the competitive landscape in in-car AI, Affectiva and Smart Eye have opted to consolidate their efforts, aiming for industry-leading innovations rather than competing with one another. Their union is expected to pave the way for significant advancements in AI technology within the automotive space.
(Image Credit: Affectiva)
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