There is no denying that users love filters. Users check out Snapchat daily just to use the new funny filters in their Stories. They use filters on Instagram to make their images more artsy or improve the overall look of their selfie to have the perfect lighting.
While photo editing and the use of filters is nothing new, this trend saw new heights with the release of the app Prisma, which uses augmented reality to transform photos into having the look of paintings.
And now Facebook wants in on some of the action, too.
The (tech and not media) company is currently developing its own version of Prisma that features artsy filters for videos.
Facebook's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox demoed a prototype of the technology during the WSJD Live tech conference on Tuesday in Laguna Beach, Calif.
The company's filters also uses the tech called "style transfer" that allows content to be transformed to represent the style of popular artists such as Monet or Rembrandt. Facebook's video filters also uses AI and computer vision to be able to apply the filter to the video in real-time.
Facebook's Chris Cox demos prototype software for making creative smartphone videos, here emulating Van Gough #WSJDLive pic.twitter.com/W3bXqIDFVk
— Geoffrey A. Fowler (@geoffreyfowler) October 25, 2016
This venture marks Facebook's first steps into augmented reality. However, it should come to no surprise that the social network would make this jump since it does own Instagram (which is known for its creative filters), as well recently acquiring the video filter app MSQRD back in the fall.
Interestingly enough, the founders of Prisma did take a trip over to Facebook headquarters in July which sparked acquisition rumors at the time. However, Facebook's own version of Prisma is said not to use any of the tech the popular app was built with.
Facebook's artsy filters are only believed to apply to videos and not photos. Since it is just in its prototype phase, the tech is not available on the social media.
However, with Facebook believing that video content is the way of the future, it would only make sense that it would focus on efforts to improve videos on its platform. Cox said that the company predicts that 70 percent of all Internet traffic will be from video in five years.
Another main difference between Prisma and Facebook's version is that the social network's is said to work much faster since rendering is done in real-time instead of being applied to the content after its captured. Cox revealed that this is done in 24 frames per second.
It is know clear if Facebook would use this tech to launch a standalone app, integrate it into Instagram or have it simply as a video editing feature on Facebook itself such as for Live videos. This would add on to the already existing color filters that are available for Facebook Live videos.
Since the video filters are still in development, there is no expected release date as of now. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to reveal more about the feature soon.
