Apple Inc. bought the artificial intelligence startup Emotient that specializes in facial recognition technology that interprets people's emotions as they watch videos and other media.<br />Apple confirmed the purchase Thursday without giving terms or describing its plans for the San Diego, California-based company.<br />Artificial intelligence has become a strategically important area for Apple as it seeks to build smart software tying together its numerous products.<br />The Emotient deal, reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal, fits with Apple's strategy of acquiring smaller companies with promising technology that can be integrated into future devices.<br />London-based Realeyes and Waltham, Massachusetts-based Affectiva are among the startups with Emotient using artificial intelligence techniques to infer emotions from facial recognition software.
