Brighton, UK-based Emteq Labs unveiled Sense, the world’s first emotion-sensing smart glasses. Alongside the unveiling of Sense, the company announced the appointment of Steen Strand, former head of the hardware division of Snap Inc., as its new Chief Executive Officer.
The new AI-powered eyewear platform provides lab-quality insights in real life and in real time. This includes comprehensive measurement and analysis of the wearer’s facial expressions, dietary habits, mood, posture, attention levels, physical activity, and additional health-related metrics, Emteq said in a press release.
“Our faces reveal deep insights about our minds and bodies. Since founding Emteq Labs in 2015, we have been on a mission to improve lives and health outcomes through a deeper understanding of our emotional responses and behaviors,” said Dr. Charles Nduka, founder and Chief Science Officer at Emteq Labs. “Our proven, breakthrough Sense eyewear allows us to look inward, rather than outward. Wearers will peer into the future to see how subtle, nearly invisible factors can shape long-term health and wellness like never before.”
Emteq’s Sense glasses are equipped with contactless OCO sensors that detect high-resolution facial activations at key muscle locations, as well as a downward-facing camera for instantly logging food consumption. Data collected is analyzed using proprietary AI/ML algorithms, and securely transferred to the Sense app and cloud platform. The user has full control over the data and can choose to share it with researchers, trainers, coaches, or clinicians upon consent.
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The powerful insights that Sense uncovers have a transformative impact on weight management and mental health, as well as broader healthcare applications, consumer sentiment, augmented reality, and more.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 1 billion people in the world are living with obesity and approximately 970 million people worldwide are living with a mental health disorder. Emteq’s platform helps address these critical health issues by enabling a deeper understanding of everyday behaviors, decisions, and the emotions that drive them.
A recent peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Medical Internal Research found that Sense accurately tracks food intake and eating behavior in everyday settings, overcoming the major limitations of traditional self-reporting methods such as manual food logs. This research confirms the effectiveness of Emteq’s technology for precise dietary monitoring, which is essential for successful interventions to promote a healthy lifestyle.
Additionally, research published in Frontiers in Psychiatry journal demonstrated that Emteq’s platform can distinguish between depressed and non-depressed people as compared with current gold standard diagnostic methods. By effectively assessing affective behaviors in remote settings – such as the home, office, or school – Sense is poised to significantly improve the diagnosis and monitoring of chronic mental health and neurological conditions including depression, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, and more.
"Having spent my entire career at the intersection of innovation and consumer products, I can confidently assert that Emteq will transform the smart eyewear landscape and, more importantly, improve and save lives," said Steen Strand, CEO of Emteq Labs. "Health applications have catalyzed the rise of wearables, and eyewear is the next frontier. Emteq will deliver the most compelling case for smart glasses yet—proving that they can dramatically improve your health."
Prior to joining Emteq, Strand led Snap Inc.'s hardware division, SnapLab, where he was responsible for the Spectacles line of augmented reality eyewear as well as the company’s hardware-related investments and acquisitions.
Emteq Labs’ Sense development kit will be available to commercial partners tackling a wide range of applications starting in December.
About Emteq Labs
Emteq Labs is a UK-based deep technology company pioneering real-time emotion recognition in virtual and augmented environments. The company’s patented emotion-sensing eyewear captures facial muscle activity across diverse settings, leveraging proprietary AI/ML algorithms to provide insights on expressions, eating behaviors, attention and physical activity. With nearly a decade of research backing its innovations, Emteq Labs holds 27 patents, has published 28 peer-reviewed publications, and has earned multiple awards for its cutting-edge technology.
