Apple has been busy building up its artificial intelligence resources - buying two firms in just four days.
Bloomberg reports that the tech-giant has bought Perceptio - a company which develops image-recognition technology for smartphones.
Its focuses on "deep learning" technology, which allows phones to recognise people without having to use external databases - this improves the safety of users' data.
The company has confirmed the acquisition but it has not released any further details.
"Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," said a company spokesperson.
This comes days after it acquired the British company VocalIQ which develops software to improve computers' ability to understand human speech.
It could be used to fine-tune Apple's voice assistant, Siri - and it also may have other applications as the firm invests in developing its own car.
These moves are part of a wider trend which has seen Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple all invest heavily in hiring AI experts and snapping-up promising specialised start-ups in the area.
