If you’ve ever wanted an application that would make your face invisible to a camera, then you might soon get to play with one. It’s unclear what the usefulness of such an app would actually be, but there’s technology that lets you use one.
Specifically, we’re looking at an application that takes advantage of the sophisticated TrueDepth camera that powers facial recognition on the iPhone X.
Developer Kazuya Noshiro posted on Twitter a video that shows the concept in action, which was first spotted by Design Taxi.
The app uses the TrueDepth camera to camouflage the user facing the camera. The apps only hides the user’s face which is replaced by the background. The eyes, the hair, and rest of the body are still visible. The resulting effect is somewhat creepy
The viewer sees through the user’s face, and the effect adapts to the movements of the face. That’s definitely impressive, although Noshiro doesn’t explain what the app may be actually used for.
That said, the iPhone X front-facing camera tech, as complex as it may be, can’t capture images beyond the surface. So how is the transparency effect obtained? The developer used game development platform Unity to shoot the background with a fixed camera. This seems to suggest that you’d need a second camera to shoot your environment so the actual iPhone app can work. Or that you’ll have to use the iPhone to shoot video of your surroundings before using the app.
When will we see it in the App Store? That’s something we’re yet to find out. In the meantime, check out the short 10-second demo in the following tweet:
iPhoneXで顔だけ光学迷彩っぽくなるやつできた pic.twitter.com/aPXJcHi8Y4
— のしぷ (@noshipu) December 27, 2017
