Facebook is currently working on a new algorithm that will reduce bumps in a 360-degree video and will stabilize it to provide a smoother viewing experience for its users. Facebook research scientist Johannes Kopf revealed in his blog post that the company is currently testing the system to get the feedback and will soon roll it out for all Facebook users as well as on its Oculus virtual reality platform.
Shaky video is a major issue with conventional cameras, virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree cams. A camera shake or any other instability while using VR to view 360-degree videos could result in serious motion sickness. By smoothing out those instability, Facebook wants to make viewing video on its platform more pleasant. Moreover, 360 videos are quickly becoming more popular with launch of dozens of new devices with different specifications and quality outputs, giving people a chance to shoot 360 video in different environments. However, most video stabilization technology, until now, has been designed for traditional videos that don’t extend well to 360 video. The new stabilization software designed by Facebook researchers takes just 22 ms/frame and also reduces the bit rate by 10 to 20 percent. Another feature of this new system is that one can easily speed up a stabilized 360 video into a fast-paced experience.
“This approach uses a new ‘deformed-rotation’ motion model that we designed specifically for 360 video, and a new hybrid 3D-2D technique for optimizing the model parameters in order to make shaky 360 videos incredibly smooth,” Kopf said.
Facebook is currently using a dedicated hyperlapse algorithm, according to Kopf, and it will eventually “incorporate the new hyperlapse adaptation into the functionality.”
Kopf said the new technology is being tested currently, and researchers are focusing on the user feedback. The new feature is expected to be launched soon to allow people to share high-quality videos with their friends.
“As we test this new technology, we’re listening to feedback on how it works. We hope to make it available to everyone who uploads a 360 video, so people can even more easily share high-quality and easy-to-watch immersive moments with their friends. We’ll also work to incorporate the new hyperlapse adaptation into the functionality we offer, and looking further ahead, we’re interested in exploring the possible applications of our new stabilization tech for live 360 video.”
In future, the new approach could be used with live 360 video.
How Facebook Became the World’s Largest Social Network?
Facebook, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, U.S., is the largest social networking website in the world. The Facebook website was launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz. Initially, the websites membership was limited to Harvard students, but it was later expanded to include higher education institutions in the Boston area, the Ivy League schools, and Stanford University. Since 2006, anyone aged 13 or above can register on the website.
By late 2007, there were 100,000 business pages on Facebook. These pages were created by companies to promote themselves and attract customers. On October 24, 2007, Microsoft revealed to have purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million. Once year later, Facebook announced its plan to set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.
In July 2010, the company announced to have touched the milestone of 500 million users, making it the world’s largest online social network at the time. At that time, almost half of the Facebook users were using the site daily, for an average of 34 minutes (according to the company’s data).
According to SecondMarket Inc., Facebook’s value in November 2010 was $41 billion, making it the third largest American web company after Google and Amazon.
The initial public offering of Facebook was held in February 2012. Three months later, the company started selling stock to the public, and reached an original peak market capitalization of $104 billion. As of March 31, 2016, the social network had over 1.65 billion monthly active users, and it is now also the world’s most popular social networking site based on the number of active user accounts.
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