NEW DELHI: Internet search giant Google has announced that it is rolling out support for AR selfie filters to YouTube Stories.
In its latest blogpost, Google has said that users will be able to add objects like animated masks, glasses, 3D hats and more to their selfies. Google claims that it uses " a unique set of perceptive technologies" which lets them "track the highly dynamic surface geometry across every smile, frown or smirk."

Using machine learning (ML), Google is able to create more realistic filters as it is able to take into account natural lighting. It also says that they were able to "achieve highly realistic makeup effects by modelling Specular reflections applied on lips and face painting by using luminance-aware material." Explaining the technology behind this new feature Google said, "machine learning infers approximate 3D surface geometry to enable visual effects, requiring only a single camera input without the need for a dedicated depth sensor. This approach provides the use of AR effects at realtime speeds, using TensorFlow Lite for mobile CPU inference or its new mobile GPU functionality where available."

The new filters are available for on the latest version of the ARCore SDK.

YouTube Stories was first launched as 'Reels' back in 2017 and then later expanded to "creators" with more than 10,000 subscribers.

Among all the social networking platforms that offer the support for 24-hour ephemeral posts -- such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat and others -- Instagram is the most popular. In June 2018, Instagram announced that it had 400 million daily active users of its Stories feature, which is more than twice the number of people that visit Snapchat every day. Recently, in an interview to TechCrunch, Instagram's co-founder Kevin Systrom said, "Honestly a big reason why was that for a long time, people’s profiles were filled with Snapchat links and it was clear that people were trying to bridge the two products. So by bringing the two products [Feed and Stories] into one place, we gave consumers what they wanted."

Source: gadgetsnow.com