Apple buys AI start-up that builds tech to read facial expressions

Apple has acquired Emotient, a San Diego-based artificial intelligence start-up whose technology can read facial expressions to determine emotions and responses to ads, products and experiences. While Apple has not been specific about its use, experts speculate that the technology could help Siri suggest better apps for users, improve Apple's Photos app, target advertising depending on mood and evaluate responses to advertising, assess shopping experiences in stores, and be used for screen-testing in the company’s foray into original TV programming. In addition, Emotient could assist Apple’s push into the health arena, enhancing its Health app with accurate tracking of emotional health. 

On Thursday, news broke that Apple had bought Emotient, a San Diego-based startup that builds technology that can recognize emotions based on people's facial expressions.

Emotient's technology can use video from regular cameras, scan it to find faces, and then analyze the facial expressions on the people in the video to determine, instantaneously, how people are feeling.

It's unclear what Apple plans to do with Emotient's technology — Apple said in a statement to Tech Insider that it "buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

But it's fun to speculate! So here are some of the things Apple could do with Emotient:

Instantly predict what app you want to use:

Jan Dawson, chief analyst at the technology research firm Jackdaw Research, speculated that Apple could use the technology to help Siri suggest better apps for you at any given moment. For example, iOS 9, the latest update to Apple's iPhone and iPad operating system, includes Siri App suggestions: Swipe down on your homescreen, and you'll see four apps Siri thinks you'll use at that moment. Apple, Dawson said, could use "the front facing camera to gauge your mood and be more proactive about suggestions."

Use it in its Health app:

In a video about Emotient, Marian Bartlett, a founder of Emotient and the company's lead scientist, calls healthcare "a major area" for the company.

"Emotion is like the missing vital sign," Bartlett says. "Facial expression conveys information about depression or PTSD, and we can also measure information about things like levels of pain."

Apple is making a major play into health. Its Health app is a dashboard for data like heart rate, steps walked, calories burned, blood sugar, cholesterol, and more. It could incorporate Emotient's technology so you can easily and accurately keep track of your emotional health, too.

It could use it to improve its Photos app:

Maybe one day you'll be able to search Apple's Photos app for "happy photos."

Apple could use Emotient beef up its advertising platform, iAd:

Apple can currently use information like where you live, what you've downloaded (apps, movies, books, music, etc.), what music you listen to in Apple Music, and what you read and subscribe to in Apple News, in order to target advertising to you. And, of course, it could do an even better job targeting ads to you if it knows how you feel at a particular moment.

In its retail stores:

Apple could use the technology in its retail stores to gauge consumers' shopping experiences and improve or alter certain aspects of the store experience.

Use to to measure how people respond to advertising:

One of Emotient's promo videos plays up its benefit to advertisers and marketers, showing a focus group while they watch a Superbowl ad.

This, the narrator says in the video, can "help advertisers judge the impact of their ads."

Use it to test original programming:

Variety reported over the summer that Apple was exploring getting into original content. The company could use Emotient's technology for screen-testing, another use outlined in Emotient's promotional video.

None of the above!

Sometimes, it's clear what Apple will do with an acquisition. For example, when the company bought AuthenTec, the Florida-based company that made fingerprint sensors, a few years ago, many people correctly assumed that the sensor would find its way to iPhones and help enable mobile payments.

With Emotient, it's not so clear. Maybe the technology will never find its way to a consumer product.

We'll just have to wait and see.