Facebook deploys 3D photos using AI to simulate depth – TechCrunch

And if you could take a look behind the contents of your photos, as if you were moving your head to see what is inside a window? This is the futuristic promise of Facebook 3D photos. After announcing the feature at the F8 in May, Facebook is now deploying 3D photos to add imaginary depth to portrait shots of your iPhone. Take one, tap the new 3D photo option in the status update dialer, select a photo and users in portrait mode on the desktop or in the mobile news feed, as well as on the desktop. in VR via the browser Oculus Go or Firefox on Oculus Rift. move your head to see the depth of the photo. Everyone can now see 3D photos and the opportunity to create them will open to everyone in the coming weeks.

Facebook is constantly looking for ways to keep the news feed interesting. What started with text and photos was eventually extended to live video and shows, and now 360 photos and 3D photos. Facebook hopes that if you're the exclusive home of social media for these new types of content, you'll come back to explore and accumulate some ad postings in the meantime. Sometimes it means adopting new mind-blowing formats, such as virtual reality memories, that recreate a digital pointillism scene from a photo.

So, how exactly do 3D photos work? Our writer, Devin Coldewey, explored earlier this year how Facebook uses AI to assemble real layers of the photo with what it assumes to be what should be there if you tilt your perspective. Since portrait mode triggers both cameras in a phone simultaneously, parallax differences can be used to recreate what is behind the subject.

To create the best 3D photos with your iPhone 7+, 8+, X or XS (more phones will work with this feature in the future), Facebook recommends keeping your subject at a distance of three to four feet, and placing the elements in the foreground and Background. Distinct colors will improve the separation of layers, and transparent or glossy objects such as glass or plastic can mess up the AI.

Originally, the idea was to democratize the creation of VR content. But with headphone penetration still relatively low, it's possible to post depth in the news feed that will have the biggest impact for Facebook. At a time when the freshness of Facebook was weakening, the hosting of new-generation artistic forms could make it a must-see site, even if we decided more and more to socialize with Instagram.