Facebook Launches Augmented Reality Platform For Developers

“We're making the camera the first augmented reality platform,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, announced at F8 2017 developer conference.

Zuckerberg explained in his F8 keynote speech that transforming the camera from a feature into a platform where any developer can build for augmented reality will be an important step forward. Facebook is now allowing developers to apply for access to the closed beta of the platform’s AR Studio tool. It will allow developers to use precise location, object recognition, and depth detection to create their effects.

Even though augmented reality software is already available on smartphones by placing virtual objects in the physical world, like Pokémon Go, and transforming images or generate funny effects on people, like Snapchat’s filters, Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook had been somewhat late to the AR scene. “Even though we were a little slow to add cameras to all our apps, I’m confident that now we’re going to push this augmented reality camera forward,” he said.

“There is a long line of tech innovations like this -- opening PCs as a platform to run any programs, opening social networks as a platform for social apps, opening smartphones as a platform to run mobile apps. Think about all the different apps you have on your phone. That's only possible because it's an open platform. It creates so many new possibilities. Building a camera platform will do the same and it will help a new generation of developers build out their own ideas,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook account.

The main point Mark Zuckerberg focused on in his keynote speech was that we don’t have to wait for augmented reality glasses when there’s already an augmented reality device in our hands, which is the smartphone camera.

“We have a lot of work ahead. But in 10 years, I think we'll look back at opening this platform as a completely different way of thinking and a defining moment in the development of augmented reality,” Zuckerberg declared.