Facebook CEO wants to augment your reality

“We are going to make the camera the first mainstream augmented-reality platform”.

Building on the launch of chatbots on Messenger at F8 previous year, Facebook announced the new Discover tab, to find recently used bots, popular “experiences” and search for businesses.

This new camera makes use of augmented reality (AR) allowing you to add masks, frames, and objects to your pictures or while you record video (features Snapchat users will be familiar with).

Messenger will have much more to offer: Messenger is also going to get an Update.

The possibilities for AR are only limited by a developer’s imagination and there are plenty of ways in which the real world can be manipulated using this technology.

Zuckerberg maintains that “AR building blocks” like simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), 3D effects, and AI-driven object recognition are fundamental in creating apps with the Camera Effects platform in the future.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage today during the company’s annual F8 conference to discuss the future of computing and Facebook’s multiple platforms. Act two is “giving developers the power to build all kinds of AR tools into the first augmented reality platform, the camera“. If you have an APP idea, you can apply for access from the Facebook Camera Effects website.

Facebook users could use augmented reality to leave a virtual note for a friend at a bar, or to find virtual street art on a real life wall, Mr Zuckerberg said.

The launch comes as Facebook faces criticism as it tries to grow into its role as a platform that influences the lives of its nearly 2bn users. Other major companies dipping into AR include Microsoft, Google and Apple. Schroepfer further says, “it delete some of the bad parts that can happen when people are unidentified”.

Facebook at last year’s F8 opened the Messenger Platform to the developer community.

Technology gurus hold many different opinions about the true potentials of virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR).

Frame Studio is now available. while applications for the beta version of AR Studio can be found here.

The tech firm’s developer conference came a day after Facebook said it was reviewing how users report videos that run afoul of its rules after an OH man posted a video of himself shooting and killing an elderly man.