After the release of the augmented reality game Pokemon Go, many companies are going into the augmented reality and A.I. fields. One company that is eager to expand on the AR and AI fields is Facebook.
On Thursday, Facebook announced that it is open-sourcing its computer vision work.
Computer vision will give machines the ability to understand their surroundings. Apps that feature exceptional computer vision will be able to effectively utilize AR. Facebook believes its computer vision apps will be useful in several fields including commerce and health.
This is great news for developers who want to get into the A.I. and AR fields. Facebook will provide developers with the tools necessary for AR.
During a call with reporters, two Facebook A.I. researchers shared some potential ideas. One idea consists of taking pictures of your food. The picture will display details about the food such as how many calories are in it. Another idea is to point your phone at your furniture. Computer vision will be able to deduce the price of the furniture and where to buy it.
In addition to identifying calories and prices, computer vision can potentially help athletes. With computer vision, an app can give you feedback on a basketball shot, a soccer kick, or a yoga pose. Computer vision will help improve your athletic abilities by showing you what motions to imitate to get the desired result.
Another possibility is using computer vision to help fix your car or other appliances. Computer vision will help you identify the parts of your car under the hood or the parts of your refrigerator.
With the development of computer vision, humankind will be a step closer to human robots. Imagine someone instructing a robot to get a bottle of medicine. The robot will be able to identify the medicine bottle and fetch it.
Facebook’s involvement in the A.I. and AR fields will push the fields forward in terms of development. Facebook is trying to create A.I. that will recognize the exact position of an item rather than just knowing that the item is present.
The company will share its knowledge on A.I. and AR to speed up development in both fields.
According to Larry Zitnick, Facebook’s research manager at Facebook’s A.I. lab based in California, Facebook “…care[s] more about using A.I. than owning A.I..”
