Your Future iPhone Might Know How You Are FeelingApple just bought Emotient, a San Diego-based artificial intelligence startup.

ByCatherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Everything you do online is tracked. But what if companies were to know not only what you look at online, but also how you feel about it?

That's the next generation of computer data analytics. And if a recent Apple acquisition is any indication, a future generation of your iPhone may be capable of just that.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant has reportedly scooped upSan Diego-basedartificial intelligence startupEmotient, which analyzes facial expressions to determine a person's emotions.

The acquisition wasconfirmed to theWall Street Journal, though terms of the deal were not.

Related:Apple Is Quietly Creating a New Indoor Mapping System

Apple did not immediately respond to狗万官方记者的置评请求。

What's the value in being able to register a user's feelings? From a business perspective, knowing what your customers think about an advertisement, a product or a story allows a company to adjust that piece of content so that customers like it better. That, in theory, will drive consumers to spend more and companies to make more money.

This isn't the first artificial intelligence startup that Apple has scooped up recently. In October,公司买了VocalIQ, a U.K.-based startup that aims to make it possible for people to speak with their computer devices.

Related: Apple's Latest Experiment Means You May Never Have to Listen to Your Voicemails Again
Wavy Line
Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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