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Central Europe
June 22, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
Irish tech titan lines up stake in Slovak AI firm
Jason Corcoran in Dublin
Irish tech titan Pat Phelan is lining up a punt in YouFirst, an innovative Slovak startup that utilises artificial intelligence (AI) to track facial expressions of television viewers.
Phelan, who sold his e-commerce ID and fraud protection start-up Trustev in a $44mn deal two years ago, is already advising YouFirst and said he is likely to take a stake.
YouFirst uses emotional AI software that not only tracks the facial expressions of viewers watching a video from the comfort of their homes but also their emotions.
“This technology is amazing and can look at 800 data points,” Phelan told bne IntelliNews in an interview at the recent MoneyConf fintech summit in Dublin. “I am working with them, I have brought in some customers, I am in an advisory role and I will probably do an investment.”
Viewer responses are recorded through their webcams – with their consent – while they watch a video. The recorded responses are streamed to YouFirst’s cloud servers where they are securely processed. The results are aggregated and reported on the YouFirst dashboard in near real time.
The software tracks 68 key-points of the face, mainly around the eyes, nose, and mouth. For a more robust solution, the AI is also able to detect wrinkles and shades in the nasolabial, forehead, and other regions. Based on these input data, the software can detect the probability of each emotional facial expression, such as anger,
Irish tech titan Pat Phelan
disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise or neutral on a scale from 0 to 1.
Founded in 2014 by a diverse team of IT, psycholo- gy and marketing specialists, YouFirst operates in Europe, Russia and Latin America from its Slovak base. Clients include drink giant Heineken, mobile network Orange, Czech TV and banks in Eastern Europe.
The company was co-founded by Lujza Bubanova, who used to run start-up weekends and hackathons in Slovakia.
On one such weekend, Bubanova met with three programmers who were working with a machine learning algorithm based on century-old research of human emotions.
“They were playing around with this algorithm and had no idea what to do with it,” said Bubanova. “So, I found an angel investor, a CEO, and that’s how we founded the company.”
The most popular application for the software
is pre-testing for TV commercials while Phelan has trialled out the technology using a video to promote Sisu Aesthetic Clinic, a doctor-led chain of aesthetic beauty clinics.
“Lujza sent me the link to the 30-sec video and
I shared it with 300 people who watched it,” said Phelan. “The results came back and they were horrific – people were puzzled, angry and people were happy when they were supposed to be sad. This was all instant, so it’s brought me to the point where I will probably do an investment."