FaceSoft has been officially spun out after winning $12,800 in proof-of-concept funding in a university business competition last year.
Imperial College London today launched UK-based 3D facial imaging technology spinout FaceSoft with an undisclosed amount of seed funding from AI Seed and assorted angel investors.
FaceSoft is developing machine learning models and databases that improve 3D facial recognition and computer-generated facial reconstruction technologies. The spinout’s reconstruction algorithm has been trained on a database of 2.5 million high-resolution 3D facial scans.
The company was established by Imperial Innovations, the tech transfer affiliate of Imperial College London owned by commercialisation firm IP Group.
The technology advances research by Stefanos Zafeiriou, an associate professor in Imperial College’s Department of Computing, and Allan Ponniah, a locum consultant plastic surgeon at government-funded training facility Royal Free Hospital.
The algorithm is expected to find uses in biometric security, where applications currently depend on a 2D photograph taken from a single perspective.
FaceSoft has launched from Imperial’s Founders Choice initiative, which offers academic founders more equity in their spinouts in exchange for pared down tech transfer services.
The spinout previously secured $12,800 in proof-of-concept funding in June 2017 for winning the inaugural Programm/able software-centred business competition run by Imperial Innovations and university entrepreneurship initiative Imperial Enterprise Lab.
