{"id":230286,"date":"2026-02-01T09:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/in-its-second-largest-ever-acquisition-us-tech-giant-acquires-q-ai-amid-effort-to-break-into-wearables-market-30-of-firms-staff-were-called-up-to-reserve-duty-on-oct-7"},"modified":"2026-02-01T09:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:04:14","slug":"in-its-second-largest-ever-acquisition-us-tech-giant-acquires-q-ai-amid-effort-to-break-into-wearables-market-30-of-firms-staff-were-called-up-to-reserve-duty-on-oct-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/in-its-second-largest-ever-acquisition-us-tech-giant-acquires-q-ai-amid-effort-to-break-into-wearables-market-30-of-firms-staff-were-called-up-to-reserve-duty-on-oct-7","title":{"rendered":"In its second-largest ever acquisition, US tech giant acquires Q.ai amid effort to break into wearables market; 30% of firm\u2019s staff were called up to reserve duty on Oct. 7\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/logo.in-its-second-largest-ever-acquisition-us-tech-giant-acquires-q-ai-amid-effort-to-break-into-wearables-market-30-of-firms-staff-were-called-up-to-reserve-duty-on-oct-72.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2026<a href=\"http:\/\/Q.ai\">Q.ai<\/a> is tight-lipped in public about its technology, but patents it filed show tech being used in headphones or glasses using \u2018facial skin micro movements\u2019 for nonverbal communication, according to the FT.<\/p>\n<p>Apple\u2019s vice president of hardware, Johnny Srouji, said in a statement that the startup is \u2018pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging and machine learning.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The move may be a component of Apple\u2019s strategy for \u2018wearable\u2019 products, such as smart glasses. Software that reads facial expressions could potentially make way for a hands-free user interface that doesn\u2019t require talking out loud, reports noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2026Q.ai is tight-lipped in public about its technology, but patents it filed show tech being used in headphones or glasses using \u2018facial skin micro movements\u2019 for nonverbal communication, according to the FT. Apple\u2019s vice president of hardware, Johnny Srouji, said in a statement that the startup is \u2018pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":542,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1977],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-robotics-ai","category-wearables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/542"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}