Smart Eye acquires Affectiva for eye-tracking biometric technology development

Eye-tracking solutions provider firm Smart Eye announced it will acquire Affectiva for $73.5 million, thus expanding its presence in Boston, U.S., and Cairo, Egypt.

Following the acquisition, the new conglomerate will reportedly focus on the development of eye-tracking biometric technologies for applications in interior sensing, media analytics, and human factors research.

In addition, Smart Eye will now continue its work in improving automotive-grade interior sensing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions and biometric driver monitoring systems (DMS).

“As we watched the DMS category evolve into Interior Sensing, monitoring the whole cabin, we quickly recognized Affectiva as a major player to watch,” said Smart Eye Founder and CEO Martin Krantz, commenting on the news.

According to Krantz, Affectiva’s pioneering work in establishing the field of Emotion AI has substantially contributed to bringing this technology to market at scale.

The integration of Affectiva’s AI with Smart Eye’s eye-tracking systems will now enable human factors researchers and marketers to achieve a more holistic view of people’s behaviors.

“At the end of the day, this is about saving lives and bridging the gap between humans and machines,” Krantz explained. “In the future, looking back at this moment in time, I am convinced that this is a decisive moment for road safety thanks to the announcement that we have made today.”

Interior sensing, automotive applications have been multiplying in the past few years, exploiting the potential of biometrics to provide a safer and more comfortable experience for both drivers and passengers.

More recently, the advance of both face and voice biometric solutions into automobiles has prompted a prospective legislative change in the United States.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  AI  |  automotive biometrics  |  biometrics  |  emotion recognition  |  eye tracking  |  Smart Eye Technology