Facebook, the world’s leading social media platform has acquired a facial recognition startup named FacioMetrics very recently. Although the details of the acquisition are kept under wraps, trade experts believe that the company was bagged for $1 billion.
FacioMetrics will be used to offer the privilege of adding photo and video effects to Facebook users; challenging rival Snapchat. The company which was spun out of the Carnegie Mellon University of Pennsylvania in 2015 offers a special artificial intelligence to give facial image analysis capabilities to almost all applications running on smartphones. The technology can be used by a host of applications such as animation, measuring audience reactions, virtual and augmented realities.
The main aim of the California-based company in buying this tech startup is to use FacioMetrics on its platform, along with its subsidiaries like WhatsApp and Instagram. It will be similar to the service of “filters” seen in Snapchat.
Social media giant Facebook is also interested in using facial recognition software to filter out fake user profiles in a customized way. It will not only help eradicate fake news creators to a certain extent on the web but will also help keep a tab of cyber criminals who are hyperactive on the web through malpractices.
It is already a known fact that facebook was flooded with fake news galore before the US 2016 elections. This might have caused serious concern to national security and so former Us President Barack Obama reacted in a sharp way against Facebook after the elections and asked its CEO Mark Zuckerberg to find out a way to keep a check on such mischief creators.
There is a high probability that facebook might share its analytics software capabilities to trace out terrorists and cyber criminals at some point in time in future. Currently, the company will use FacioMetrics not only to add emotions to its patron photos and videos but also to filter out fake profiles through pre-determined metrics.
Facebook may also use the new startup features to enable selfie-based logins for facebook users.
