Facebook’s big developer conference of the year, F8, is coming to a close. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the other speakers made some pretty big announcements, like the Camera Effects Platform, on the first day, but the second day’s keynote speakers focused on connectivity, artificial intelligence, and again on virtual and augmented reality.
Some new features are available now, such as Facebook Spaces, while others have timelines that could extend 5 to 10 years.
Watch the streams
If you missed the Facebook Live streams, you can watch them directly from the Facebook for Developers page here.
The Camera Effects Platform
CEO Zuckerberg announced a new Camera Effects platform, which will enhance the new camera featured in both the Facebook app and
Read more about Camera Effects.
Facebook Spaces
Virtual reality is continuously gaining steam, and Facebook is a major player — it owns Oculus, after all. The social media giant’s new Spaces platform will provide virtual environments where you and your friends can interact with avatars you choose based on your profile photos. You’ll need a VR headset to try
Read more about Facebook Spaces.
Group Chat Extensions
Chat Extensions essentially brings Facebook Messenger chat bots into group chats. The go a little further than the average chat bot, because they feature more interactivity with more people. The Spotify bot, for example, can share tunes with everyone in a Messenger session. The OpenTable bot can book restaurant reservations for a party of five. More are on the way from the Food Network, Kayak, and TheScore.
Connectivity
Facebook is lifting its sights higher, literally. Moving beyond merely trying to connect everyone on the planet via social networks and messaging, now the company is looking to the atmosphere and the stratosphere to develop technologies that can bring internet connectivity to everyone, including populations that are currently unserved or underserved and crisis areas where power and communications systems are down.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence work is moving along at a fast pace as computers learn about the world. Just two years ago Facebook’s AI team identified 20 classes of questions then-current AI engines struggled with. Now, with those types of questions mastered, they’re proceeding with thousands of question classes. Today, for example, an AI system can ingest every article in Wikipedia and accurately answer any questions from that content. The team also working on algorithms for what they refer to as “casual 3D image capture” to be able to understand and respond to context as well as content.
Virtual Reality
Facebook had a big year with virtual reality, shipping Oculus Rift and Touch with the much lower-priced 2017 Samsung Gear VR coming soon.
Augmented Reality
Some of the coolest over-the-top content in today’s keynote included developments and future projects in augmented reality. Facebook executive Regina Dugan said now’s the time to be back in the room and focus on how the powerful force in today’s smartphones can be used for better connections with people next to us, not just reaching those who are far away. She spoke of speech as a lossy compression algorithm and the potential of a direct brain-to-PC interface as a powerful force for change. Dugan showed examples in
Read more about augmented reality here and here.