Money, Money, Money
Remember that famous song by that long time music ABBA??? Yea, everybody would love to have money, especially in today’s times. Probably the one sector which is really craving for cash is the SMB market. With given how tight credit has become, banks of all types and kinds are becoming extremely reluctant to loan out money. But, there are always other avenues, as this Posting will explore. Two Press Releases came out today in which two different Biometric Vendors received the critical funding needed. So, here we go . . .
Emotion Recognition
The Biometrics Vendor known as “Affectiva” has just announced that it has received a very sizable chunk of change, valued at over $5 million. The inside detail: “ Affectiva, an emotion measurement and communication technology startup, today announced it has completed a $5.7 million Series B financing round led by WPP’s consumer insight division, Kantar, and Myrian Capital . . . Affectiva will use the financing to accelerate the development and marketing of Affdex, a software solution for emotion recognition. Recently launched, the Affdex system reads emotional states such as liking and attention from facial expressions using a webcam. Affdex employs advanced computer vision and machine learning techniques to recognize and automate the analysis of non-verbal responses, and it applies scientifically validated and patented methods to interpret viewers' emotional responses quickly and at scale. Today, Affdex hosts the world’s largest database of facial expressions . . . In addition, the financing will support the next generation of Affectiva’s Q Sensor . . . The Q Sensor quantifies emotional excitement by measuring electrodermal activity (EDA), motion and temperature. It provides objective biological data that can measure emotions in natural settings.” (SOURCE: http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9103/).
So, first of all, who has ever heard of Emotion Recognition as a Biometric Technology??? I for one never have. But I am assuming it is very along the lines of Gesture Recognition. It seems like that the money will be used primarily for software development, for the Emotion Recognition technology. From the best I can understand, it seems that the facial expressions are captured via a webcam, and from there such facial states like electrodermal activity, temperature, and of course, motion of the face. These are then translated into variables such as excitement, anxiety, stress, etc.
The biggest market potential for appears to be market research related to brand loyalty and purchasing decisions (just like the Gesture Recognition Postings I have written about). But much more advanced technology is used to analyze this, including machine learning algorithms and computer vision. It is interesting to not as well that this Biometrics Vendor claims to have the world’s largest database of facial expressions. Just think about this one: Facial Expression + Facial Recognition = A great Security solution. Hopefully the Biometric Vendors pick up on this potential.
Ammunition Protected by Biometrics
In Michigan, a Biometrics Vendor known as “LEID Products, LLC” has just announced it has received $250,000 in seed money. The details: “Auburn Hills, MI-based LEID Products, LLC, a cutting edge technology company offering electronic storage solution with asset tracking and management software, announced today that in June the company was awarded $250,000 from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund . . . LEID Products manufactures electronic locker, cabinet and gun rack storage with biometric asset protection and control. LEID’s proven Biometric Access Control Systems (BACS™), streamlines operations at military facilities, medical facilities, crime and research labs, law enforcement departments, universities/colleges, libraries, and large corporations by securing, tracking and providing full accountability to clients’ critical assets, evidence, medications, and weapons.” (SOURCE: http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9101/).
So as you can see from the above quote, this Biometrics Vendor primarily specializes in creating Biometric Solutions for asset protection, and military/law enforcement applications. This includes protecting guns, ammunition, artillery, and yes, even safes. I have written about the Biometric safe before, in which something like Fingerprint Recognition is being used in order to gain access the safe (forget the combination dial, that is way too “analog” compared to Biometrics). But this market is now coming down to the personal level, which includes Biometric jewelry boxes.
So who knows, this Biometric Vendor could make their mark their as well (no pun intended). Unlike how the money will be used by the Biometrics Vendor just up above, this one will use it primarily for market penetration and sales/marketing development, in order to branch out their product and service lines, and reach newer customers.
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