Apple filed a virtual group selfie patent in 2018 that is perfect for social distancing.
Companies file patents all the time, with many of them never seeing the light of day, but a patent filed by Apple in 2018 would be perfect in today’s climate. Essentially, it would allow for groups of friends to take group selfies without ever having to be in contact with them.
And before conspiracy theorists try to claim that Apple knew about COVID-19 in 2018, the concept of the patent is more about how hard it is to get a good group selfie and the difficulties surrounding getting everyone together in one place for the picture with a good background.
Think of it this way. A group of people wants to take a group photo, but either can’t get together (especially currently) or struggle to get a solid picture together. With this idea from Apple, everyone could take individual selfies at the same location, trying to get the background similar (maybe a lake, or in front of a building) and then send their pictures to one of the people in the group.
Apple’s machine learning would then compile these various photos into a group selfie, stitching together faces, and the background. The user in charge would also be able to judge and tweak the placement of people within the image before finalizing it.
It’s a somewhat silly idea, but at the same time, it makes a lot of sense. But again, patents are filed every day and many of them never come to fruition, this could very well be one of those.
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