EFE Latam VideosEmerge, the “start-up” with Spanish DNA that revolutionizes AI through the sense of touch
Los Angeles (USA), June 17 (EFE).- From “feeling” your relatives in a video call to experimenting in your own hands the strength of a superhero, the “start-up” Emerge aims to revolutionize the worlds of technology, artificial intelligence and virtual reality through the sense of touch.
The company, co-founded by the Spanish Isaac Castro, the Asian-American Sly Spencer Lee and the Ecuadorian Mauricio Teran, has been working for years on a device that already allows users to physically enjoy -and without the need for electronic controls or gloves- this experience multisensory.
“We founded Emerge in 2015 because we share a history of migration and we believed in a future in which distance and time do not get in the way of feeling present, especially with our loved ones,”
Castro recalled in statements to EFE from the company’s headquarters in Los Angeles (California, USA).
Emerge Wave-1, as this laptop-sized device was dubbed, works by emitting ultrasonic force fields that, as these entrepreneurs stress, can be physically felt with “bare hands.”
“We didn’t want to use any type of glove. This technology is based on something similar to what we feel in the chest, through mechanical waves, when we go to a concert. We combine these acoustic waves with more precision to generate pressure in the air and that everything is tangible”, explained the co-founder of Spanish origin.
This is one more step in the future of virtual interactions through screens or televisions in what has already been classified as the “AI of emotions”.
The projection of this experience is such that, at the beginning of June, Emerge formalized a multi-year strategic agreement with The Walt Disney Company to bring its multisensory proposal to homes through the platform and products derived from this well-known media conglomerate.
“It is time for a communication platform focused on what really matters: our emotional connection with others. We are delighted to partner with Disney to further our mission,” Isaac Castro, also co-CEO of Disney, said in a press release released weeks ago. Emerges.
For its creators, the pandemic marked a turning point, generating “unprecedented levels of disconnection” and placing feelings of loneliness as “a great vital threat”,
so they decided to work focused on this “communication platform” that focuses on the “emotional connection” with others in real time.
“The data is alarming, we are on the verge of a global mental health epidemic. That is why we wanted to create a product that would overcome the barriers of distance and time with a very intuitive format,” added Castro.
From Emerge they are already adding efforts to involve the main brands of commercial electronics and thus reach more users through smart televisions, virtual reality and augmented reality headsets, as well as video games or films.
PROTECT USER DATA, SOMETHING FUNDAMENTAL
This system -in which the senses of hearing, sight, touch and brain activity come into play- would allow emotions to be transmitted digitally, forging a drastic change in the forms of online communication.
An infinite number of personal data, including those related to emotions, could appear on the network with this revolutionary idea, whose creators made an effort to clarify that it will be protected by high security standards.
The information, as they concluded in the same statement, would be stored locally on Emerge devices, would offer a “transparent view” of the data collected and would allow users to “dictate what they share and with whom”, with the possibility of deactivating them.
Currently, Emerge is made up of a multidisciplinary team of 17 professionals and, in just eight years of existence, it has already been honored as a pioneer company in its sector during the World Economic Forum in 2022.
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