Affectiva

Affectiva is a software company that builds artificial intelligence. The company claims its AI understands human emotions, cognitive states, activities and the objects people use, by analyzing facial and vocal expressions. An offshoot of MIT Media Lab, Affectiva created a new technological category of Artificial Emotional Intelligence, namely, Emotion AI. Affectiva was co-founded by Rana el Kaliouby, Ph.D., who became chief executive officer as of May 25, 2016, and Rosalind W. Picard, Sc.D., who worked as chairman and Chief Scientist until 2013. Both of Affectiva's early products grew out of collaborative research at the MIT's Media Lab to help people on the autism spectrum. Affectiva co-founder and CEO, Rana el Kaliouby, Ph.D. has been recognized on Inc.’s Female Founders 100 List 2020, BBC 100 Women 2019, Fortune's Most Powerful Women Trailblazers 2019, Forbes: America's Top 50 Women in Tech, Fortune's 40 under 40 list, and others. Affectiva has been recognized on Forbes’ AI 50: America's Most Promising Artificial Intelligence Companies, CB Insights’ AI 100, Forbes’ Top 10 Hot AI Technologies. Affectiva has been covered in Gartner's, Competitive Landscape: Emotion AI Technologies, Worldwide, and in IDC Innovators: Affective Computing report. On April 21, 2020, Affectiva co-founder and CEO, Rana el Kaliouby, Ph.D., released a book about her personal journey and the story of Affectiva, called Girl Decoded: A Scientist's Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology. The book was published by Penguin Random House and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and Science Magazine. The company has expanded its Emotion AI technology to detect more than facial expressions, reactions and emotions. Affectiva's software detects complex and nuanced emotions, cognitive states, such as drowsiness and distraction, certain activities and the objects people use. It does that by analyzing the human face, vocal intonations and body posture.