Good news for selfie buffs as the Microsoft Selfie app for iOS – which released barely a month ago – has been updated and brings several new features users' way, includes an improved user interface.
The Beijing-based Microsoft team, which is the brains behind the app, has taken into consideration users input and updated Microsoft Selfie to bring two more features for the app's users – social sharing and an improved UI.
#ICYMI Microsoft's #MachineLearning powered #Selfie app now has a social sharing button - show us your best one! https://t.co/I1QwtKeCMw
— Microsoft Research (@MSFTResearch) January 22, 2016
Previously, iOS users were unable to share the selfies they took with the Microsoft Selfie app. However, thanks to the update they can now share their pictures with friends on social media. So now, users of the popular app will be able to indulge in some vanity and share their pictures on public platforms.
A simple tap on the button will allow one to post their latest selfie from the app directly on Facebook for example. You can also open the iOS sharing dialogue option, which will enable the sharing of the image on other sites such as Twitter and native iOS apps. The new UI tweaks are also welcome changes and make navigation through the app simpler.
"Microsoft Selfie app is a selfie and photo enhancement application available on iOS, web and WeChat. Backed by computer vision technology, Microsoft Selfie intelligently considers age, gender, skin tone, lighting, and many other variables all with one click. Users can transform average photos into enhanced, ideal portraits in seconds," describes Microsoft.
Designed to improve the quality of selfies through adjustment of exposures, intelligent enhancement and noise reduction among other features, the Microsoft Selfie app also has filters to make your front-camera pictures seem perfect.
The idea behind Microsoft Selfie is to create professional-looking images. This is reflected by the technology the app deploys such as Digital Face Clean for enhancing portraits. This technique gets rid of unwanted features such as bags under the eyes, wrinkles and more. However, it retains characteristics that are desirable such as tattoos, piercings and hair.
Additionally, a new portrait enhancement technique called Digital Face Clean intelligently removes undesired features like wrinkles and baggy eyelids, while preserving desired characteristics like hair, mustaches, tattoos and accessories.
The Burst Images De-noising technique is able to judge the light conditions and enables burst shots automatically, the multiple frames aid in reducing the noise and enhancing the quality of the picture taken.
The Microsoft Selfie app for iOS has already garnered over half a million downloads since its launch two weeks ago. The team is now looking to expand the availability of the Microsoft Selfie app to more platforms so Android users may not have to wait much longer. The team is also eyeing the introduction of more features.
"Together with the research team we will introduce more innovative features to the app, and expand availability on more platforms," revealed Peggy Dai, program manager of the incubation team.
