Facebook offers augmented reality capabilities through Spark AR Studio

Facebook is offering anyone a way to use augmented reality (AR) effects on videos with its Spark AR Studio platform.

Rags Vadali, Product Manager, Facebook, shared that the open beta release of Spark AR Studio for Instagram is "one of the biggest moments we’ve had for the last few months".

"There’s been a tremendous amount of interest across the globe wanting to build for Instagram," he explained. "We’ve actually seen an explosion in content being created for Instagram."

Vadali said the majority of content being created today utilises the front-facing phone camera, typically people creating effects on their faces. "The reason why this is so popular (is that we’re) giving them a whole new range of expressions – ear piercings, tattoos on faces," he said. "Essentially it allows them to express themselves, Instagram is a lot about expression. It's really great synergy with what we’re trying to do with augmented reality."

Accessing AR effects pm a target image via QR code.

The goal is to have Spark a platform with a wide range of choice for users. "We believe that for AR to grow, it needs ...a community creating thousands of filters so that users then have a diversity of things to choose to express themselves. We’re just getting started. We’re going to see this grow," he said.

The rear-facing camera offers the opportunity for creative expression with the wider world, he added. "As the tool progresses, as we add more features the next frontier is ease of building a lot of things, so we can see AR in the real world," he said.

"Spark AR Studio is the tool, it’s a downloadable app; it’s free to create, it’s free to publish, yeah, it’s your own platform," he said.

Windows support was added at the Facebook Developer Conference (F8) in April/May 2019. "A big part of the growth in Asia is from the Windows app," Vadali said.

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