Apple acquires computer vision startup Regaind

“TechCrunch has learned that Apple has acquired a small French startup called Regaind, according to multiple sources,” Romain Dillet reports for TechCrunch. “We’ve reached out to Apple and the company sent us the following statement: ‘“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.'”

MacDailyNews Take: Confirmed!

“From what I understand, Apple acquired Regaind earlier this year. The company had raised a bit less than $500,000 (€400,000) from Side Capital,” Dillet reports. “Regaind has been working on a computer vision API to analyze the content of photos. Apple added intelligent search to the Photos app on your iPhone a couple of years ago.”

MacDailyNews Take: And it works rather well. Search for “ocean” or “food” to see how well it works.

“In order to do this, Apple analyzes your photo library when you’re sleeping. When you plug your iPhone to a charger and you’re not using your iPhone, your device is doing some computing to figure out what’s inside your photos,” Dillet reports. “Regaind goes one step further and can tell you the technical and aesthetic values of your photos. For instance, if you shoot a bunch of photos in burst mode, Regaind could automatically find the best shot and use it as the main shot in your photo library. Regaind could also hide duplicates… Interestingly, Regaind also analyzes your face to determine your gender, age and emotion. It’s unclear if Apple had enough time to leverage Regaind with iOS 11.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Also a potentially nice doevtail with Emotient, an earlier Apple acquisition.

SEE ALSO:
Why did Apple buy a startup whose tech can read emotions via facial recognition? – January 7, 2016
Apple buys Emotient, maker of artificial-intelligence tech that reads emotion by analyzing facial expressions – January 7, 2016

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]