The search giant Google has announced on Wednesday, June 6, that it has acquired the French startup Moodstocks.
According to Tech Crunch, Moodstocks is an image recognition startup based in Paris. The company develops machine learning based technology for image recognition. Its software apps are used by developers to create APIs for smartphones.
The acquisition has been announced on a Google blog. On the other side, on Moodstocks company's homepage is announced that the API and SDK developed by the company will be discontinued soon. As a division within Google, Moodstocks will still remain focused on building great image recognition tools.
The two companies did not disclose the terms of the deal and it is unknown how much Google has paid for Moodstocks. The French startup has been launched back in 2008, being co-founded by Denis Brule and Cedric Deltheil. The company has been working on improving image recognition via mobile devices.
Google doesn't specify whether it will be incorporating the Moodstocks tech solely in its own consumer services or whether it will be launching its own SDK for developers in order to incorporate more imaging services into apps. Up to date it is only known that Google plans to bring Moodstocks' team and the company's tech into its France based R&D operation.
Vincent Simonet who heads up Google's R&D center in France said in a short statement that Google sees Moodstocks' work contributing to better image searches. The service is currently already offered by Google, but thanks to Moodstocks' knowledge base it will now going to be improved.
It is unknown at the moment whether Moodstocks' image recognition apps will remain focused on smartphones or they will find applications elsewhere. Moodstocks' machine learning algorithms could also be applied in other areas, such as in Google's searches or in an existing app like Photos. According to Phandroid, with Google's interest in artificial intelligence, it is likely that their latest acquisition could eventually help bolster Google services.
