Christine Scott
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, has made it very clear that when it comes to Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality it’s the ladder that is going to dominate our every day lives. Now Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is echoing his claims. Over the last few months, Zuckerberg has mentioned AR’s potential, he never indicated just how big of a role it would play in the development of Facebook. At F8, Facebook’s annual conference, Zuckerberg announced that AR is the future, and he very much plans to implement it into Facebook in every which way possible. At the conference, he said:
“When we get to this world, a lot of the things we think about today as physical objects, like a TV, will actually just be $1 apps in an AR app store. So it’s going to take a long time. But this is the vision, and this is what we’re trying to get to over the next 10 years. ”
He continued to note that Facebook’s Augmented Reality will start off basic. Similar to Snapchat messaging, users will be able to leave virtual messages in hidden places or have the ability to see virtual art on blank walls. His end goal is to create light weight virtual glasses so that you won’t even need to use a camera lens.
One key technology used in Facebook’s Augmented Reality is SLAM, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. It’s currently used in the world of robotics and self-driving cars. SLAM helps your camera sense what’s around you and recognize the appropriate depth to augment your world. It makes sure your virtual world interact with the real world seamlessly.
As Mark Zuckerberg spoke of the hopeful future of Facebook’s Augmented Reality, he also called for the help of developers and app creators to assist him. Facebook doesn’t expect to create all of the software for its Augmented Reality and will require programmers to create apps that work with Facebook’s Camera Effects platform. Giphy is one of Facebook’s earliest partner in its Augmented Reality venture, resulting in Giphy Thoughts, an app that allows user to add viral objects such as thought bubbles to photos and videos. So all my programmers out there know you have a fun new platform to work with.
Now that Augmented Reality has the backing of Apple and now Facebook, we have a feeling that you’ll be seeing more companies jumping on the bandwagon and getting in while they can. Snapchat is already well past many in this venture. It’ll be interesting to see which other tech giants join and what comes of it all.