MacRumors’s Eric Slivka has reason to believe that Apple has acquired Swiss real-time motion capture firm Faceshift at some point during the past few weeks.
The firm launched in 2011 and has presented some impressive demoes of its technology. More recently, in March, it announced the release of a wireless facial tracking helmet that can be used alongside third-party, full-body motion capture systems such as like Perception Neuron. Actually, Faceshift’s technology was used in the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens (you can check out the video at 0:41 to see it in action).
So, here is why Slivka believes Faceshift was acquired by Apple: First, there were the whispers, which triggered some research. The result was a Swiss company’s registry filings, which in somehow leads to Apple: The three original corporate directors stepped down and were replaced by Baker & McKenzie mergers and acquisitions attorney Martin Frey. The link is Baker & McKenzie: Apple have used their services in various countries.
From that moment on, no one knows what happened to Faceshift, but given Apple’s Primesense acquisition – Faceshift demoed its technology using a Carmine 3D sensor from Primesense – and the acquisition of Swedish facial recognition firm Polar Rose, this could make sense if we consider Apple’s secrecy policy.
