A Key Patent that Apple acquired from Zurich's Faceshift to create both Animoji and Memoji was published late last month
Apple acquired Zurich-based Faceshift sometime in September or October 2015. It was eventually used to create Animoji and more importantly, Memoji. The U.S. Patent Office granted Apple a patent stemming from Faceshift in 2019. One of the key Faceshift patents that Apple acquired, that stems back to 2013, was published by the U.S. Patent Office on January 26, 2023.
Source: patentlyapple.com