Snap launches AI tools for advanced augmented reality

Snapchat owner Snap released its most recent version of generative AI technology on Tuesday, enabling users to experience more authentic special effects while recording themselves on phone cameras, in an effort to outpace competitors in the social media space.

Snapchat has been a pioneer in the field of augmented reality (AR), enhancing images or videos of the real world with digital effects. Despite being smaller than Meta and other competitors, Snapchat believes that by developing creative and entertaining special effects, called lenses, they will attract more users and advertisers.

The company announced that AR developers can now develop AI-enhanced filters, which Snapchat users will soon be able to incorporate into their posts.

Snap, based in Santa Monica, California, also unveiled an enhanced edition of its developer program known as Lens Studio, enabling artists and developers to develop AR capabilities for Snapchat or other platforms.

Snap's CTO, Bobby Murphy, said that the enhanced Lens Studio will reduce the time required to create AR effects from weeks to hours and produce more complex projects.

“This tools are enjoyable for us because they expand the creative possibilities for people to work in, while also being user-friendly for newcomers to create something unique rapidly,” Murphy explained during an interview.

Lens Studio has added a new set of generative AI features, including an AI assistant capable of providing assistance to developers when needed. Another tool enables artists to input a prompt and generate a 3D image instantly for their AR lens, eliminating the requirement to create a 3D model from the beginning.

Previous iterations of AR technology could only achieve basic effects, such as adding a hat to someone's head in a video. Murphy stated that with Snap's improvements, AR developers can now design lenses that appear more realistic, like a hat that moves smoothly with the wearer's head and matches the lighting in the video.

Murphy also mentioned that Snap has intentions to develop entire body AR experiences, not solely facial ones, like producing a new outfit, which is currently challenging to accomplish.

FAQs

Q. What is Snap augmented reality?

A. Snap AR exists to empower creatives, professionals, and businesses around the world to revolutionize the way we work, play, and explore. It plays a massive role in the way people experience, and experiment with, AR.

Q. How does Snapchat use artificial intelligence?

A. Content shared with My AI, including your location if you've shared that with Snapchat, will be used by My AI to provide relevant and useful responses to your requests, including nearby place recommendations. Your data may also be used by Snap to improve Snap's products and personalize your experience, including ads.

Q. What is the Snapchat AR lens program?

A. HOW IT WORKS: The Lens Creator Rewards Program celebrates creativity by rewarding Creators who make high-performing Lenses on Snapchat. AR shapes how we experience the world around us and makes the moments shared between friends on Snapchat truly unique.

Q. How do you use augmented reality on Snapchat?

A. Click on the top left menu and select "Create an augmented reality lens". Step 2: Create a new filter. There are 2 options: choose a ready-made Snapchat-created template, or start a filter from scratch. Step 3: Customize your filter.

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