SAN DIEGO and CAMBRIDGE, MA /PRNewswire/ -- Emotient, a leading authority in facial expression analysis, and iMotions, a leading eye-tracking and biometric software platform company, announced Procter and Gamble, the U.S. Air Force, and Yale University are the first customers of a newly integrated platform that combines facial-expression recognition and analysis, eye-tracking, EEG, and GSR technologies. The combined solution is designed for usability research, market research, neurogaming, and academic/scientific research.
As part of the agreement between the two companies, Emotient's "industry-leading emotion-recognition solution" will be fully integrated into iMotions Attention Tool, an eye-tracking and biosensor software platform for research and usability.
The Emotient technical team brings 20+ years experience pioneering machine learning and computer vision technology for facial behavior analysis, and includes seven PhDs, led by Marian Bartlett, PhD., Javier Movellan PhD., and Ian Fasel, PhD. Beginning in 1995, Emotient's founding team has published hundreds of seminal reports on applying machine learning for facial behavioral analysis, and have been cited by thousands of other researchers in the field. Over the last five years, more than 130 universities have deployed the academic version of Emotient's robust system, the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox. Emotient's advisory board includes Paul Ekman, Ph.D., a pioneer researcher of nonverbal behavior, whose scientific work is recognized as one of the most influential in the area of facial behavior analysis to date.
iMotions is currently accepting pre-orders for the integrated Attention Tool platform with Emotient's FACET SDK; the combined solution is expected to be generally available in Summer 2013.
"The whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts with the integration of these technologies, and by combining four key sensors into a single platform, the depth of discovery will be infinitely greater," said Ken Denman, CEO, Emotient. "Both Emotient and iMotions have deep roots in the academic and market research sectors. By combining sensors into a fully integrated solution, the two companies are delivering a comprehensive, easy-to-use, and cost-effective solution. We are thrilled with early customer responses to the integrated platform."
"We see a growing customer demand for an easy-to-use platform that enables multi-biosensor research. The Attention Tool platform already today supports eye-tracking, EEG, and GSR, and by adding facial expression analysis, researchers are given new opportunities to gain valuable insights" said Peter Hartzbech, Founder & CEO, iMotions. "We chose to partner with Emotient because of their deep expertise based on decades of research in the area. The addition will further strengthen our Attention Tool's position as the most comprehensive eye-tracking research platform available in market today for scientific research, marketing research, usability, and gaming."
Emotient's FACET SDK
FACET provides the ability to track and analyze the emotional responses of users in real time, detecting and tracking expressions of primary emotion, as well as overall positive, negative, and neutral sentiments and blended composites of two or more emotions. FACET delivers critical facial expression data, analysis, and insights that can be leveraged by technical enterprises and market research firms to provide valuable and actionable insights. The FACET SDK was developed using machine-learning methods with high-volume datasets carefully constructed by a team of Facial Action Coding System–certified behavioral scientists.
iMotion's Attention Tool
Attention Tool is the leading eye-tracking and biosensor platform. Researchers can in a simple and easy way set up large market research or scientific research studies. Today, the platform is applied by Procter and Gamble, TNS, and universities such as Yale, Purdue, Arizona State, and George Washington.
About Emotient
Emotient is a leading authority on facial expression analysis. Its flagship product is the FACET SDK, a proven software solution that translates facial expressions into actionable information, enabling a broad array of companies to develop emotionally aware technologies and to create new levels of customer engagement, research, and analysis.
Founded by the foremost experts in the development of machine learning for facial behavioral analysis, "its proprietary technology sets the industry standard for accuracy and real-time delivery of facial expression data and analysis."
About iMotions
iMotions A/S develops an eye-tracking and biosensor software platform. The company was founded in 2005 and maintains its headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a U.S. office at MIT in Cambridge, MA. iMotions has reseller representation in Asia and Latin America. The company develops and markets Attention Tool, which is the most comprehensive, easy to use, and scalable eye-tracking software and biosensor software platform available on the market today. The platform is targets market research companies, universities, usability labs, and game developers. iMotions has clients in 25 countries, and many major brands, corporations, and universities use the Attention Tool software for research and usability testing.