Affectiva is an emotion measurement technology company that grew out of MIT’s Media Lab which has developed a way for computers to recognize human emotions based on facial cues or physiological responses. Among the commercial applications, this emotion recognition technology is used to help brands improve their advertising and marketing messages. Another major application has been in political polling. In 2011, the company partnered with Millward Brown, which is itself a part of the Kantar Group, the market research, insight and consultancy division of WPP plc, a London-based public company.