Samsung and Apple are always in contention with each other and when Samsung released its AR Emoji, it was thought that was to compete with Apple’s Animoji. However, a patent was granted to Samsung last week and it suggests that the AR Emoji has more to it than what meets the eye. It could have been rolled out to combat bandwidth issues with live video.
We are all painfully aware of the bandwidth issues with live video. Samsung had the foresight to see these issues progressing into the future and worked out an alternative by applying for a patent that would let users video chat with each other using 3D models of their faces. This patent was spotted by PatentlyMobile.
The patent states, “Existing video communication systems typically require high bandwidth and are inherently high latency as entire image sequences need to be generated and compressed before transmitting the signal to another device. A need exists for a visual communication system capable of displaying the user’s actual likeness, facial expressions, and motion in real time while reducing bandwidth.”
The patent also says that people can’t usually make eye contact while video chatting as they will be looking at the screen at the other person rather than at the camera. AR Emoji helps you create an avatar based on a photo of yourself which you can then send as images and GIFs.
It can’t be used in video chats currently. But, if Samsung chooses to apply the patent to these emojis, we might soon be looking at avatars through video chat instead of each other directly.