Affectiva - recognise emotions

 

Affectiva 

Headquarters: Boston  

Founders: Rana el Kaliouby (CEO), Rosalind Picard 

Funding: $53 million 

Valuation: $116 million

Affectiva is trying to tackle the incredibly hard problem of  teaching software to recognize emotions based on facial expressions and voice. “There is no way that heuristic coding or a simple rules-based approach can capture all these complexities and nuance,” says cofounder and CEO Rana el Kaliouby. The company recently raised a fresh round of funding led by automotive company Aptiv with the hope that its technology could one day be integrated into smart cars (imagine a vehicle that could issue a warning to a drowsy-looking driver). In the meantime, it’s also being used to test consumer feedback on ads and TV programming.

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