Tech giant Apple was back in the spotlight Wednesday with confirmation that it had a acquired a small motion-capture company that worked on the latest "Star Wars" film.
Industry website TechCrunch first reported the news after it finally received a response from Apple after asking if had made a move to purchase Faceshift, a Zurich-based startup.
Details were scarce - with no sum put on the acquisition - but the deal has generated excitement due to the fact that Faceshift worked on "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens".
The Swiss firm is reported to have used its technology to make non-human characters in the film more human-like in their expressions. The company offers "real-time motion capture" which means facial expressions from actors can be mapped in real-time, rather than using expensive post-production techniques.
Speculation is high that Faceshift would help Apple's shift towards gaming and movies as the technology giant is expected to launch of a live TV service. However, Apple gave no confirmation of this when contacted by CNBC.
There were also hints from TechCrunch that Apple could look to use the technology for facial recognition for identification or security purposes. Faceshift's own website states that the software can be used to do "reliable and repeatable measurements on faces."