Apple has affirm its attainment of Faceshift , a Zurich - based motion capture caller whose engineering science is being used inStar state of war : The Force Awakens .
hearsay of the accomplishment firstappeared a couple calendar month ago , and Apple has nowconfirmed the deal with TechCrunch . Faceshift ’s software is able-bodied to capture facial aspect and engraft them onto digital avatars in near real - clock time . Intel show the engineering with its3D RealSense camerasearlier this class , and the 0:41 second mark ofthis Star Wars : The Force Awakens videoshows a glimpse of Faceshift in action .
As usual , Apple did n’t elaborate on why it made the leverage or how it might use the applied science . But one can always speculate .
The power to recognize someone ’s unique facial expressions could be useful for enterprise security app , as TechCrunch note . Turning citizenry into digital avatars could also prove ready to hand with the rise of practical or augmented realism . Although Apple has n’t revealed any initiatives on those forepart , the company could be toying with ideas hand the current VR / AR try fromMicrosoft , Google , andFacebook .
Faceshift is n’t the only company Apple has acquired along these lines . Applebought face recognition firm Polar Rosein 2010 , and picked up PrimeSense , a Divine of 3D motion detection sensing element , a couple years back . And earlier this year , Apple acquired Metaio , whose augmented realism technology was being used by major brand such as Macy ’s and Ikea . So far , however , none of those acquisitions have made an light changeover to consumer - face Apple intersection .
Why this matters : As with many Apple acquisitions , it ’s potential that Faceshift ’s usefulness never becomes obvious to consumers . But it at least shows that Apple is interested in greater interplay between the physical and digital land .
