After launching its 3D Photos feature back in 2018, Facebook is now using AI to create 3D photos from pretty much any standard 2D picture.
Facebook’s 3D Photos feature is highly immersive and engaging, but it has one drawback: It relies on the dual-lens “portrait mode” available on a few high-end devices. This made it impossible for all other device users to create or share 3D Photos, thus limiting the number of Facebook users who could use the feature.
Now, in an effort to democratize the creation and sharing of 3D Photos on its platform, Facebook is using “state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to produce 3D photos from virtually any standard 2D picture.”
The way it works is simple in theory but complex in its execution. As researchers from Facebook Artificial Intelligence explain, the “system infers the 3D structure of any image.” Hence, it presented a variety of challenges, “such as training a model that correctly infers 3D positions of an extensive variety of subject matter and optimizing the system so that it works on-device on typical mobile processors in a fraction of a second.”
To be able to overcome challenges, Facebook AI’s team “trained a convolutional neural network (CNN) on millions of pairs of public 3D images and their accompanying depth maps,” and used other techniques developed in the past as well.
The result is that Facebook can now turn any 2D picture into a 3D Photo – whether it’s a new shot taken on any device or a decades-old photo in digital format.
The new feature also helps high-end device users who want to take 3D selfies on their front-facing cameras. Any users on an iPhone 7 or higher, or a recent midrange or better Android device, can now try the new feature on Facebook.
If you want to find out more about how Facebook built the feature, you can read all the details technical details here.
You might also like
More from Facebook
Meta Is Killing Its Messenger For Apple Watch App
Meta announced it will remove the Messenger for Apple Watch app on May 31 “After May 31st, Messenger won’t be available …
Facebook Probably Owes You Money
Meta has agreed to pay out $725 million to Facebook users to settle a class action lawsuit concerning user privacy. If …
Meta Verified Service Goes Live In The US
Want to get the coveted blue verification checkmark on Facebook and Instagram? If you're in the US, now you can. …
Facebook And Instagram Start Selling Blue Checks With Meta Verified
Meta Verified will give you a blue check badge on both Facebook and Instagram, along with other benefits for $12 …
Meta Brings Back #BuyBlack Friday For A Third Year
Meta is bringing back #BuyBlack Friday for a third consecutive year in North America. Meta emphasized the importance of the Holiday …
Facebook Is Giving You More Controls Over What You See On Your Feed
Facebook is introducing new "show more" and "show less" controls to let you adjust what you want to see on …
Meta Introduces Facebook Reels API, Offering An Option To ‘Share To Reels’
Meta has introduced the Facebook Reels API, a solution allowing developers to build a 'share to reels' option into their …
Facebook Gets Into Delivery With DoorDash Partnership
DoorDash is partnering with Meta to pilot Facebook Marketplace deliveries across multiple cities in the U.S. Drivers will only transport items …
Meta Rolls Out Horizon Worlds In France And Spain
Meta Horizon Worlds, the VR community and game, is now available in France and Spain.
