Snapchat was one of the earliest and strongest proponents of augmented reality (VR) in social media, from now common applications such as adding cute animal features to the world-facing Lenses. Today, the company has announced a new set of innovative Lenses which provide full body tracking functionality.
Launching over 10 3D full body tracking Lenses via the Snapchat platform, you can dress up as a purple pumpkin for Halloween, wear a green skeleton cloak, don a hot dog costume if the need takes you, unleash a giant tarantula or or use the Scary Face lens to shock a few people.
The new tracking technology works across platforms, whether you’re an iOS or Android owner, captured by both the front and rear-facing cameras. Able to track 18 joints on the human body and then apply the digital models to follow the person’s movements, seven of the new Lenses overlay a full-body costume whilst the rest add AR characters next to the person in the camera’s view, following their movements.
All these new Lenses can be found in Snapchat’s Lens Explorer which features a wide content selection created by the company and the public via Lens Studio, Snap’s free desktop-based app. These new full-body Lenses were created internally with the public version of Lens Studio unable to offer the option at the moment, this may change in the future.
Mobile AR has grow massively over the last few years with Snapchat saying: “more than 180 million Snapchatters engage with AR daily — nearly 30 times every day,” in a press release. This has been aided by platforms like Apple’s ARCore and Google’s ARKit, allowing lots of new developers to enter the space. This has seen Snoop Dog and 19 Crimes create AR wine, Felix & Paul Studios reveal work on an AR book of Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens, and even CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher is getting an AR videogame.
As further AR advancements are made, VRFocus will keep you updated.
Source: https://www.vrfocus.com/2020/10/snapchats-new-halloween-ar-lenses-offer-full-body-tracking/
