“As the market for virtual reality technology continues to grow, Apple has made an interesting acquisition that could further its role in the space,” Ingrid Lunden reports for TechCrunch. “TechCrunch has confirmed that Apple has snapped up Faceshift, a startup based in Zurich that has developed technology to create animated avatars and other figures that capture a person’s facial expressions in real time.”
“From what we understand, several Faceshift employees are now working for Apple now out of Europe,” Lunden reports. “It’s not clear how Apple intends to use Faceshift’s technology, but there are a number of areas where Faceshift has been demonstrated and is already being used.”
“In gaming experiences, people can adopt avatars whose faces will alter based on the players’ actual expressions for a more immediate and realistic experience. In film production, the technology can be used to improve the process of animating characters to more closely mimic the actors’ facial movements,” Lunden reports. “The technology is also making an appearance at the highest level of wow: it’s used in the latest Star Wars film to make non-human characters more human-like in their expressions.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Back in early September, Mike Beasley reported rumors of this acquisition for 9to5Mac.
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Apple has purchased facial motion-capture company FaceShift – September 4, 2015