As technology expands, so does solutions. US-based tech startup, Observant, has found a new use to the iPhone X, XS and XR’s fancy infrared depth sensors: to analyze people’s facial expression in order to understand how they’re responding to a product or a piece of content. There may come a day where users would not have to say a word to express their emotions.

With an aim to find better ways to capture user reactions, CEO Dave Schukin argued that other approaches by various startups using webcams and eye trackers are less accurate than Observant’s — in particular, as they don’t capture subtler “microexpressions,” and they don’t do as well in low-light settings.

In contrast, he said the infrared depth sensors can map your face in high levels of detail regardless of lighting, and Observant has also created deep learning technology to translate the facial data into emotions in real time.

Still at its testing stage which is on an invite-only basis, Observant has created an SDK that can be installed in any iOS app, and it can provide either a full, real-time stream of emotional analysis, or individual snapshots of user responses tied to specific in-app events. However, some retail and e-commerce apps have already adopted the feature, and is also being used in focus group testing.

Eventually, Schukin believes that the technology could be applied more broadly, whether that’s by helping companies provide better recommendations, introduce more “emotional intelligence” to their chatbots or even detect sleepy driving.

It may be too early to detect if this method will take off, but the fact that these sensors have expanded from one to three iPhone models is a sign that things are moving in the right direction.