Quantum Lab wins the hearts of the jury, again.
The Horizon 2020 prize aims to boost cutting-edge technology in Europe by giving financial support to start-ups and technology companies. Quantum Lab, a Polish start-up, received the award earlier this month. Now, the company is walking off with the Start-up of the Year prize at Poland National Finals of Central European Startup Awards.
Quantum Lab, according to its website, “teaches computers how people feel”. Thanks to affective computing, they make computers track emotions and recognize people’s moods. In just one year and a half, QL developed an algorithm that enables emotion analysis, which gave birth to a new product – Ellen.
Ellen is a platform enabling market research. It analyses consumers’ emotions and yields quick results. Right now, if a researcher wants to see how people respond to an individual advertisement, participants go through a tutorial where they set up and then watch the ad.
Perhaps, as a market research tool, Ellen is similar to the TURF (Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency Analysis) analysis. It is a market research technique that helps organizations understand how to reach the most number of potential customers with a limited number of offerings. It is commonly used in the product, media, and general consumer market research. Moreover, like Ellen, TURF Analysis can provide valuable insights for businesses looking to optimize and/or expand product portfolios by identifying the market potential and reach for each combination of products offered.
Anyway, coming back to the topic of Ellen, it is already possible to record and analyze facial expressions of research participants. QL can draw conclusions on the whole research group. For example, Ellen can study 300 participants and tell a particular moment in the ad triggered happiness in 70 percent of the respondents. Using feedback from participants, similar to how companies use this feedback software right here, it is possible to determine how accurate Ellen was in evaluating participants’ emotions. It turns out that when compared to the feedback, Ellen is pretty accurate!
More and more features are added to Ellen on a daily basis. So far, the company can boast over 20 clients. QL is currently working on developing a user-friendly platform for its product. The client would log in, and choose survey participants by their age, gender, country of residence, etc. Users would then upload the material, make a payment, send out links and get results in less than 24 hours. If the company succeeds in its ambitious goal, it will be the first one to offer such innovative service. The start-up is in competition with two MIT spin-offs: Emotient and Affectiva. Only time will show who wins the race.
Quantum Lab, headquartered in San Francisco, is also based in Poland and Sweden.
Stefania is a fortuneteller. She enjoys reading articles/forecasts/books helping her understand the ideas and technologies that will shape the future.
