Facebook has agreed to acquire Faciometrics, a spinoff from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute that develops facial analysis software for mobile applications.

"Now, we’re taking a big step forward by joining the team at Facebook, where we’ll be able to advance our work at an incredible scale, reaching people from across the globe," said Fernando De la Torre, associate research professor of robotics and head of the Human Sensing Laboratory.

Facial analysis tools have many applications including in animation and virtual/augmented reality. At CMU, De la Torre and his colleagues developed IntraFace, battery-friendly software that was so efficient that it could run on most smartphones. Faciometrics sought to extend this work and also has been developing new applications for it.