Apple acquired Faceshift in the corporate arena of acquisition and mergers. Faceshift has been used widely for Motion Capturing in upcoming movie Star Wars The Force Awakens.
Apple acquired Faceshift in the smartest move to upgrade in the technology revolution of VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality). Faceshift is the face animation software. It is the markerless motion capture technology that can capture person’s facial expressions in real time with keeping realism and emotion intact. It is a game changer in the Media and Entertainment industry. The acquisition took place on 24th November, Tuesday, 2015 with undisclosed amount.
This motion capture technology can be used in various applications like :
- Security system for accurate facial recognition
- Real time Gaming to change the avatar on the fly with same gestures and more realistic experience
- Film Making and Post Production to replicate actor’s feeling and emotions more intuitively in 3D character
- Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
- Biometrics technology for unlocking device
- Online and offline money transfer through facial recognition
This facial motion capture software has got much more publicity as it used in the upcoming promising movie – Star Wars The Force Awakens. The robotic characters of Star Wars 7 are looking much more realistic and finished through this technology. The nonhuman characters have got characteristics and expressions on the level of real human. The breakthrough is that it cuts cost and time on a very large scale. It avoids unnecessary back and forth between creative and technical teams. The real time output gives much more clarity about the end product. Using Faceshift, you don’t limit your creativity. Do boundary less imagination, Faceshift can execute it.
Faceshift was launched in 2011 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Doug Griffin, The Visual Effects industry veteran of ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) and EA (Electronic Arts) joined the company to head their San Francisco office in 2013. Check out their participation video of GDC (Game Development Conference) 2015.
Before getting bought by Apple, this Zurich based company was associated in Gaming and Animation sectors. Through its proprietary 3D sensors and Faceshift Studio software it worked with plugins for Autodesk Maya and Unity game engine. It was also associate with Skype to provides real time avatars for users during live video chat.
Apple is going to be leading player in upcoming revolutionary technologies including Virtual Reality. It is Apple’s policy to buy smaller technology companies and then using them on an exponential larger scale to build universe of inter related products and services. Check out its earlier acquisitions to understand the big picture.
- Motion Capture technology acquisition from PrimeSense
- Facial Recognition technology acquisition from Polar Rose
- Augmented Reality technology acquisition from Metaio
This is the part of Apple’s leveraging business strategy. All these technologies will be integrated for much more sophisticated and robust mechanism. It is said that Apple will come up with various mobile and desktop solutions for multiple sectors.
