Facebook Is Using Computer Vision To Bring AR To The Masses, Dev Platform Available Now

[kcarbotte]

Facebook's AR Studio development platform leverages computer vision technology to bring advanced AR animations to a smartphone near you.

Facebook Is Using Computer Vision To Bring AR To The Masses, Dev Platform Available Now : Read more

 

[bit_user]

I wish them luck. I'm skeptical that it's going to work well enough on the range of real-world devices, in real-world conditions. One thing is certain: it'll definitely chew through your battery's charge, making me wonder how willing people will even be to enable the feature.

I do hope this creates a strong market for purpose-built AR devices, like Lenovo's Phab 2 Pro and Asus' Zenfone AR. Not to mention Hololens and Magic Leap (if they don't fall short ;-)

 

[dikbozo]

This looks to me like Facebook does face plant. Or face palm, as in what were we thinking? This is somewhat like Philip K. Dick saw for the future of advertising back in the 60's with tailored ads streamed into the eyes of people passing through public spaces. The ad platform is ultimately Zuckerberg's raison d'etre for this 'technology'.

 

[bit_user]

This is somewhat like Philip K. Dick saw for the future of advertising back in the 60's with tailored ads streamed into the eyes of people passing through public spaces. The ad platform is ultimately Zuckerberg's raison d'etre for this 'technology'.

I'll play devil's advocate.

I think his main objective is to make Facebook more immersive, pervasive, and engaging. What if he doesn't like the way that FB currently isolates people and confines them to their homes or wherever they can sit down and get sucked into their phone screen? What if he genuinely wants people to get out more?

Better & more ways to deliver ads are merely a side-benefit. And that's not the only one. AR also provides new ways to gather information about people, and new ways to market FB's services to local businesses, tourism, etc.

In any case, we should keep in perspective that he spent over $2B of investors' money on buying Oculus. Eventually, he's got to try to make this stuff pay off.

 

[dikbozo]

This is somewhat like Philip K. Dick saw for the future of advertising back in the 60's with tailored ads streamed into the eyes of people passing through public spaces. The ad platform is ultimately Zuckerberg's raison d'etre for this 'technology'.

I'll play devil's advocate.

I think his main objective is to make Facebook more immersive, pervasive, and engaging. What if he doesn't like the way that FB currently isolates people and confines them to their homes or wherever they can sit down and get sucked into their phone screen? What if he genuinely wants people to get out more?

Better & more ways to deliver ads are merely a side-benefit. And that's not the only one. AR also provides new ways to gather information about people, and new ways to market FB's services to local businesses, tourism, etc.

In any case, we should keep in perspective that he spent over $2B of investors' money on buying Oculus. Eventually, he's got to try to make this stuff pay off.

As tech history is littered with the corpses of numerous and many now forgotten 'whiz kid' ideas, Oculus is not a good example of wisely spent money. FB has a somewhat checkered history in money making terms, and here I do NOT include stock price, and is a questionable staying power such as Google has shown is a moveable feast. TSo many sinkholes for money exist that sooner or later one of these will be one too many for the shareholders and they will vote with their wallets.

As to Zuck being altruistic, well the jury is very much out on that. He seems to me to be a somewhat ruthless capitalist which kinda precludes that. Just remember his 'free internet' thing, IIRC internet.org? Turned out to be a form of walled garden pushing eyeballs back to FB.

From a strictly personal view point, more invasive advertising such as AR does not strike me as any sort of good thing. The real benefits of this accrue to FB. I like to explore where I live and discover the new on my own not as the result of some advertising gimmick.

 

[bit_user]

As to Zuck being altruistic, well the jury is very much out on that.

If you read my post carefully, I never said he was being altruistic. I suggested that maybe he wants to give FB addicts a way to get out more, without having to forego using FB. And create new opportunities for others to use FB in more ways and places.

From a strictly personal view point, more invasive advertising such as AR does not strike me as any sort of good thing.

And I agree. I also don't like the idea of FB watching more of my activities and integrating with more of my daily and economic life.

I think we can all agree that Oculus was overvalued. But FB has to make some investments of this sort. The surest way to be left in the dust is not to invest in the future. AR is eventually going to happen, and FB, Google, and MS all want to be there when it does.

I hope it's clear that I'm much more excited about what this means for AR than for FB. My hope is that FB's announcement leads to a flurry of new apps, which will run better on true AR devices, thus creating a more stable market for these to be introduced and improved.

Anyway, getting back to FB, I'd just point out that the most negative aspects we've been discussing could be addressed through better legal protections of privacy and personal information.