Accessibility Software Suffers Following Apple's Faceshift Acquisition
 

Back in September, MacRumors uncovered evidence that Apple had acquired Zurich-based real-time capture firm Faceshift, a move that Apple later confirmed.

Before the acquisition, Faceshift worked closely with game and animation studios on tech**logy designed to quickly and accurately capture facial expressions using 3D sensors.

One of the lesser k**wn aspects of Faceshift's business was licensing out its face tracking SDK to other companies, one of which was Xcessity, a small Austrian firm that specializes in designing human-computer interaction software to improve accessibility.

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One of the most popular products made by the firm is the KinesicMouse, which enables disabled people and those with degenerative conditions like Parkinson's disease to control a mouse through facial expressions. The functionality of the KinesicMouse software ?*which is also used in hospital settings ? depended heavily on the SDK developed by Faceshift, which received a royalty fee for every purchased license.

Earlier this week, Xcessity CEO Markus Pr"oll revealed in a tweet and a post on the Xcessity forum that Faceshift had revoked the license following Apple's acquisition of the company, and that he would ** longer be able to develop or offer the software:

The Faceshift SDK is the result of a research team that focused on this topic for several years at the university ETH Zürich. Whilst it would **t be impossible to create such a software it would take way too much time and resources. Believe me after about four years of development I have tried about everything.

I don't k**w who or why the decision was made to cancel the existing license agreement. I want to explicitly mention that I don't make any claims that Apple or Faceshift is responsible for the cancellation. On this part I am left in the dark just as you are. All I can tell is that the guys from Faceshift have been very supportive through all those years.

The news came as a blow to users of the software, and Pr"oll says he has received "quite a few messages" from people that really depend on the app. One user of the software told MacRumors:

People like me depend on this affordable solution to access computer games. It brought me back to gaming although I have suffered from muscular dystrophy since I was a child. Shame on Apple for locking down such a solution.

If the license cancellation is indeed linked to Apple's acquisition of Faceshift, the KinesicMouse software would appear to be an unfortunate casualty, given Cuperti**'s stated commitment to accessibility. MacRumors has reached out to Apple for comment and we'll update this story with any forthcoming response.
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