Apple Buys Faceshift, A Motion Capture Firm Used for Star Wars

Category: Technology

Apple has acquired motion-capture technology company Faceshift, best known for its facial-capture work in the forthcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Rumours of such an acquisition began in August earlier this year, but it is only now that the company has confirmed the buyout. Financial details of the acquisition are not yet known. Apple has confirmed it has bought the Zurich-based start-up, but did not disclose the sum paid, using its regular statement when announcing acquisitions: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” The Cupertino-based company confirmed the acquisition to TechCrunch and offered its standard, dry comment. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." Faceshift develops software for analysing the facial movements of an actor, which are processed and exported to a virtual avatar, providing more realistic interpretation of emotions. The software can be used on regular consumer desktop computers, and was spotted in a behind-the-scenes Star Wars video from July, suggesting it was used to animate CGI versions of physical alien models. The purchase suggests Apple is making more defined inroads into virtual reality (VR), which it appears to have been interested in for some time. This time last year the company advertised for a software engineer to create high performance apps for integration with virtual reality systems, participating "in collaborative and iterative UI [user interface] design through the implementation phases and complete performant user experience code for product delivery". In February this year it was granted a patent for a smartphone-powered virtual reality headset in the same vein as Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard, first filed back in 2008. Faceshift has previously worked with game and animation studios including Maya and Unity on technologies designed to accurately capture a user's expressions using 3D sensors. The company was also working on real-time avatars for Skype-like video chatting. But most notably, the company's motion capture technology was used in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie. It is not clear how Apple intends to utilise Faceshift's technologies into its products, but some of its recent acquisitions suggest the company's growing interest in startups working on facial-recognition technologies and virtual reality. Some companies fitting that profile that Apple has acquired in the recent years is PrimeSense, Metaio, and Polar Rose. "The frame may place a display screen of the portable electronic device in front of the user's eyes," the patent said. "The display screen of the portable electronic device may act as the primary display screen of the head-mounted device." Apple bought Israeli 3D motion-detection firm PrimeSense last November in a deal thought to be worth $350m (£216m). The firm's technology, which gives digital devices the ability to observe a scene in three dimension, is also used to power Microsoft's Xbox Kinect. 2016 marks a huge year in the development of VR, with the release of Facebook-owned Oculus Rift, HTC's Vive and Sony's PlayStation VR all slated for consumer release within the first six months of the year. Microsoft's augmented reality headset HoloLens, which combines holograms with your surrounding physical environment, is also due for release during 2016. There are several possible uses for Faceshift, from generating animated avatars for user interaction, giving a face to Siri, or even creating a facial recognition based authentication system, like Windows Hello. The company could use Faceshift to work on building gaming experiences as well. Multiple reports suggest that Faceshift employees have joined Apple and are working out of the company's European offices. Which goes on to suggest that Faceshift might discontinue offerings its services to other companies. As ever, it's unknown whether Apple's ambitions will focus around a smartphone-powered VR experience or a more ambitious, immersive headset for use with Apple TV or the company's long-rumoured future streaming platform. The filing of a patent is no guarantee the technology or device explored will ever make it to market. It's also possible that Faceshift's facial scanning capabilities could be harnessed in a form of biometric verification, taking the iPhone and iPad's Touch ID fingerprint scanner's identity confirmation function a step further. - See more at: http://www.khanstory.com/2015/11/apple-buys-faceshift-motion-capture.html#sthash.bOHK410e.dpuf