Apple has acquired the startup WaveOne, which specializes in the use of artificial intelligence for video compression. TechCrunch conducted the investigation and noticed that some of the former employees (including one of the founders) were now working at Apple. In addition, the official site of the box has been unplugged in the month of January. The news was confirmed on LinkedIn by a former member of the team:
After almost 2 years at WaveOne, we finalized the sale of the company to Apple last week. We started our journey at WaveOne, realizing that machine learning/deep learning video technology could potentially change the world. Apple saw this potential and took the opportunity to add it to its technology portfolio.
WaveOne is primarily known for creating a video compression/decompression algorithm that can analyze content. This can understand what is displayed to give priority to certain elements that attract the viewer’s eye, such as faces or texts. This method makes it possible in particular to improve broadcasting when the connection is unstable or when it hangs for a few moments, while still offering a less detailed image.
WaveOne claimed that this approach offers to reduce the size of a video by half. The company was created in 2016 and had a dozen employees. Prior to its takeover, it had managed to raise $9 million. The terms of Apple’s purchase were not specified.
This new acquisition could be useful to Apple for its various services, the most obvious being the TV+ streaming platform. If incorporated, such an algorithm could allow Cupertino to reduce broadcast costs. It only remains to wait to see how this novelty will be integrated into Apple’s software.