Apple Reportedly Acquires AI-Based Facial Recognition Startup RealFace

In a bid to boost its prospects in the world of artificial intelligence (AI), Apple has acquired Israel-based startup RealFace that develops deep learning-based face authentication technology, media reported on Monday.

Reported by Calcalist, the acquisition is to be worth roughly $2 million (roughly Rs. 13.39 crores). A Times of Israel report cites Startup Nation Central to note RealFace had raised $1 million in funding thus far, employed about 10 people, and had sales operations China, Europe, Israel, and the US.

Set up in 2014 by Adi Eckhouse Barzilai and Aviv Mader, RealFace has developed a facial recognition software that offers users a smart biometric login, aiming to make passwords redundant when accessing mobile devices or PCs. The firm's first app - Pickeez - selects the best photos from the user's album. The reported acquisition ties in with Apple's reported plans to include facial recognition in its iPhone lineup this year.

Earlier this year, Apple acquired AI-based startup Emotient, which uses software reads the expressions of individuals and crowds to gain insights that can be used by advertisers to assess viewer reaction or a medical practitioner to better understand signs of pain in patients. The terms for that deal were not reported either.

Last year, breaking with its tradition of keeping research topics a secret, Apple came out in the open publishing its first AI research paper that focuses on advanced image recognition. Titled 'Learning from Simulated and Unsupervised Images through Adversarial Training', the paper describes techniques of training computer vision algorithms to recognise objects using synthetic, or computer generated, images.

Written with agency inputs