Affectiva raises 14 million to bring apps, robots emotional intelligence

Affectiva, a startup developing "emotion recognition technology" that can read people's moods from their facial expressions captured in digital videos, raised 14 million in a Series D round of funding led by Fenox Venture Capital. According to cofounder Rana el Kaliouby, the Waltham, Mass.-based company, wants its technology to become the de facto means of adding emotional intelligence and empathy to any interactive product, and the best way for organizations to attain unvarnished insights about customers, patients or constituents. She explained that Affectiva uses computer vision and deep learning technology to analyze facial expressions or non-verbal cues in visual content online, but not the content or conversations in a video. The company's technology ingests digital images--including video in chat applications, livestreamed or recorded videos, or even GIFs--through typically the simplest web cams. Its system first categorizes then maps the facial expressions to a number of emotional states, like happy, sad, nervous, interested or surprised.