Friday, March 29, 2024

Apple received a patent for software taking a remote group selfies

Social distancing is now an integral part of our daily lives. For Apple, this is not a reason to stop social interactions. It has devised a method for taking group selfies with friends without forgetting social distancing.

The company has received a patent for software that would generate “synthetic group selfies.” It means that people taking the selfie will not need to stand in the same place.

The idea is to invite friends to take a group selfie. They then receive a notification on their iPhone and can either take a still image, stored video of themselves and send it to the creator, or participate live, via live-streamed videos. The app takes care of collecting each portrait and automatically composing the individual selfies into the synthetic group selfie by placing people as if they were right behind you.

The software allows you to invite people to a selfie session.
The software allows you to invite people to a selfie session.
Credits: Apple/USPTO

Finally, all users will have access to the group selfies and their original photos. Other participants can use the application’s functionalities to modify the group selfie as they wish, for example, by changing the position of a participant.

It is important to specify that even if it seems to be timely during this health crisis, it is a patent that Apple filed in July 2018. Remember that a patent does not necessarily lead to a novelty. We do not know whether Apple will soon release this software, or it is still in the development stage, or indeed just a patent.