Ever since Apple introduced the iPhone X and debuted its face tracking features, I knew this would be excellent for Snapchat. The face tracking tech which includes a flood illuminator, dot projector, infrared camera and the front facing camera can sense depth and is used to identify you and for payments.
This tech was also demonstrated to work well with Snapchat to project their AR masks on your face and it did better than the current selfie camera dependent systems to date. Well now Snapchat has found a way to use this tech to make better lenses and they look rather good.
According to Engadget, starting today, you’ll be able to use ‘TrueDepth enabled Lenses’ while browsing the Snapchat AR masks carouse on the iPhone X. Unlike other lenses, these wrap around your face rather well and look like they are painted on as shown in the gifs.
The TrueDepth system on the iPhone X works by blasting 30,000 infra red dots on your face to map it and the infrared sensor takes the photo. A mathematical model of your face is created which is saved in a secure enclave on the A11 chip. These sensors can track your facial expressions quite well and that is why you can only create Animojis on the iPhone X. snapchat is now taking advantage of this technology to create way more realistic lenses.
We will probably see such lenses tailor made for the iPhone X in the future and could probably make Snapchat more interesting for the select few that own the iPhone X.
