Apple has reportedly acquired artificial-intelligence startup Emotient, giving it access to technology that could one day imbue its devices with the ability to “read” people’s emotions through their facial expressions.

Emotient’s emotion-recognition technology derives from the Machine Perception Lab at the University of California at San Diego and has focused primarily on helping advertisers understand viewer reactions to their ads.

The acquisition was first reported Thursday in The Wall Street Journal, but terms of the deal were not disclosed.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here