Apple Acquires Q.ai Startup for "Silent" Voice Input

In its second biggest acquisition ever, Apple has acquired a company called Q.ai that promises to use "facial micromovements" to provide "private answers to silent questions."

Q.ai's website is quite sparse, however a patent filed by the company shows what the technology is.

Essentially, the technology shines infrared light at your face and can determine your speech based on micromovements in your facial muscles. Even if you don't audibly speak, the device can still determine what you say as long as you mouth the words out still.

Current digital assistants require you to either audibly speak or type to them in order to use them, but this would allow you to silently speak your input.

I think everyone has been frustrated trying to use Siri or something when other people are talking and you get their input instead of yours, or you normally like to use voice-to-text but you can't in a loud public place.

I could also imagine this being good for people who live with family or roommates and don't want them to hear what they say, or don't want to disturb others with loud noise.

Concerningly, the patent also describes being able to determine your emotional state, although that's not outside of what cameras are already capable of.

Apple has rumored projects ranging from a wearable AI pin to glasses and AirPods with cameras (also AI-capable). It's likely that this technology will eventually find its way into those products if they ever launch.

The acquisition marks the second largest yet by Apple, behind only their acquisition of Beats in 2014. Apple still sells Beats branded products over a decade later so they clearly like to make the most of their investments.

Outside of AI though, this tech seems genuinely useful and solves a problem I think a lot of people have. I know I would use voice-to-text a lot more if I know other people around me wouldn't hear what I'm saying. I might feel a bit weird silently mouthing out words in public though.

It's unclear if the processing of this data will happen locally or in the cloud. Apple's Face ID is fully on-device, so it makes sense that this also would be.

The CEO of Q.ai, Aviad Maizels, was also the founder of PrimeSense, a company specializing in 3D sensing. The company was acquired by Apple in 2013 and allegedly helped Apple move away from Touch ID and develop Face ID.

Seeing as Face ID is now the standard on all iPhones, Maizels has a good track record of delivering on their tech. We'll see how it plays out, at least this likely has uses outside of just AI.