Apple has reportedly acquired all shares of the Swedish face-recognition firm Polar Rose. The company develops three software applications able to recognize faces in images.
The Cupertino, Calif. based company appears to be interested in two Polar Rose applications, Face Cloud and FaceLib, according to a Norwegian Mac site Mac 1. Speculation is that the software could be rolled into web apps, such as MobileMe. Apple already offers face recogntion in iPhoto.
In a hint why Apple is acquiring the Swedish software developer, the European company also makes an Android version of the facial-recognition applications. That version is not expected to have a long lifespan once Apple gains control.
[9to5Mac]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
