Miami-based AI and facial recognition specialists Kairos has purchased Irish startup EmotionReader, in a multi-million pound deal.
EmotionReader was founded in Ireland in 2017 by Pádraig O’Leary and Stephen Moore.
The startup received financial support from Enterprise Ireland; a governmental organisation established to foster tech growth in Ireland.
Dr. Stephen Moore, co-founder of EmotionReader commented in the release that: “The EmotionReader team is looking forward to working with Kairos to make state of the art in face recognition accessible to all.”
“EmotionReader’s technology is a perfect fit for the Kairos platform. I believe with recent advances in AI and deep learning we’re at a tipping point where AI will change the lives of millions of people for the better.”
EmotionReader has been developing deep learning and computer vision algorithms that capture facial expressions. The tech was designed to run emotional analysis of subjects in order to better develop video marketing techniques. It would work by users giving the company access to their web camera as they engage with content.
The software tracks their facial expressions and gives feedback on their emotional state to marketers. EmotionReader captures each frame in the video and analysis it in order to detect rapid subtle emotions. These types of low intensity expressions are difficult to detect and register by the human eye.
Darker Tones
A key part of their software is its ability to detect a range of facial types and ethnicities. It can work in different lighting conditions and detect multiple faces in one shot.
Currently there is an issue with facial recognition software’s ability to pick up darker skin tones. Brian Brackeen, Kairos CEO said in a statement that: “In our mission to fix biases in today’s face recognition algorithms, we’re thrilled to welcome to Kairos some of the best deep learning talent in the world.”
Dr. Stephen Moore previously worked with IMRSV a company that was developing computer vision learning in tandem with real world analysis. IMRSV was also purchased by Kairos.
Dr. Moore is based in Singapore with his R&D team.
Under the acquirement deal by Kairos they: “will consolidate its R&D team into a new Singapore office, lead by Dr. Moore; taking advantage of the region’s AI talent and giving it a platform for an upcoming APAC expansion.”
