Bots, brain-typing, machine learning, and augmented reality took center the stage at
this years F8.
The event showcased Facebook’s ability to process contextual information and give feedback
in both virtual and haptic worlds.
Here’s a recap of some of the mind-bending news announced at Facebook’s annual developer
conference.
Starting with augmented reality...Facebook debuted a new platform called Creative Effects
that layers virtual art and messages with real life.
Experiences can be triggered by objects detected in your camera, your exact location, movement,
or data pulled from other apps.
It’s a bit like SnapChat but has the potential to be so much more.
A sample of effects is now live in Facebook’s camera, where you can also make your own still
2D filters.
Frame Studio lets you upload a design for an overlaid graphic with no coding required,
then friends or fans can then use them for their own photos or videos.
Today Facebook’s AR future may be taking the form of selfie filters, but in the future
the company wants to let you interact with the world only by using your brain.
There weren’t many details as to what this would really look like, but it does involve
a pea-sized array of electrodes implanted inside the subject’s brain.
This initially sounds pretty terrifying, but this “brain mouse” could one day allow
you to type up to 100 words per minute.
In less-invasive brain technology news…
Facebook is building brain-computer interfaces for typing and hearing via skin, This technology
could let deaf people essentially “hear” by bypassing their ears.
Using a system of actuators tuned to 16 frequency bands, Facebook demoed a test subject able
to comprehend a vocabulary of nine words she could hear through her skin.
Facebook also announced a new technique the company is using to improve the watching experience
for 360 videos.
By predicting where a viewer will look next, it can render that area of the image first,
which is particularly helpful for high resolution experiences or places with lower quality internet.
While we are talking 360, Facebook will license its new 360 cameras that capture in six degrees
of freedom.
There are two new designs, one with 24 and the other a 6 camera design.
Building on the original Surround 360, both cameras have a simple spherical design and
look pretty fantastic.
Facebook plans to license the designs for market later this year.
With Facebook new Spaces, you and up to three friends hang out in a virtual room where you
can chat, draw, watch 360 videos, make Messenger video calls, and take VR selfies -- all while
appearing as a cartoony avatar based on your recently tagged photos.
For now it's only available on the Oculus Rift VR headset and Oculus Touch controllers,
but eventually it will expand to other tethered VR devices.
Instagram for Android now works offline.
You can consume content you previously uploaded, and leave Likes, comments, and more that get
added when you reconnect to the Internet.
And for the developers in the room….
Facebook is open sourcing the tool it internally uses to build its Android app.
Litho allows for the efficient creation of Android user interfaces that run at a smooth
60 frames per second.
React, Facebook's popular open-source JavaScript framework for building user interfaces, is
getting a major rewrite.
React Fiber, as the project is called, is designed to power the imagery-heavy user experiences
of the future and will replace the existing React framework soon.
Facebook also launched a VR-version of React that lets developers build basic VR apps based
on the same tools and skill all React developers already have.
Messenger bots are now discoverable and can be added to group chat conversations.
Well, that’s the short of it.
With intelligent software leading the charge, Facebook is giving developers tools for a
future where with haptic vocabulary - we may not need to speak, language is no longer a
barrier with instantaneous translations, and our brains can type for us.
But until then, let’s all paint the real world and make style-y selfies.