Around 160 new emojis will be introduced by the end of this year with the release of a new update to the Unicode standard. But they are already hopelessly outdated: whatever is depicted on them, they are all archaic 2D icons. After all, why use inexpressive two-dimensional means of transmitting emotions between users from different cities / countries / continents, if the latest advances in mobile technology are capable of much more?
Attempt number of times. Animoji
At the end of 2017 Apple introduced a kind of 3D emoticons, automatically becoming the first among the vendors offering the highest possible (at the moment) personalization of virtual characters in the image and likeness of users. From the point of view of the consumer, this functionality is implemented as follows: to create an animation, you need to go to a standard application for text correspondence and in the menu for creating a new message, record the desired video with a duration of up to 10 seconds. At the same time, the choice of available characters does not shine with variety (pig, puppy, unicorn, robot, cat, chicken, alien, hare, monkey, panda and cocoa, which is already loved by many). The result can be voiced and then shared on social networks or sent to friends in the same 'Messages' application.
With the TrueDepth camera that tracks the smallest movements of the facial muscles by projecting many invisible points onto the user's face, facial expression tracking is perfect. Animoji customization is obscenely simple because it just doesn't exist. On the one hand, it was an attempt to make this feature the most understandable and accessible for a wide audience (as you know, geeks among new buyers iPhone will reach 5 percent maximum), on the other, adding the possibility of additional customization could increase the 'zoo' and to unlock the full potential of new sensors. The latter will undoubtedly be improved by Asian craftsmen and in the next one and a half to two years will appear in all somewhat serious Android smartphones. Moreover, the Green Robot market is already making the first relatively successful steps in this direction …
AR Emoji. An imitation game or something fresh?
As usual, a few months after the release of iPhone X Samsung, during its Samsung Unpacked event, which took place this year during Mobile World Congress 2018, announced the new flagships Galaxy S9 and S9 +, which received the AR function. Emoji.
In terms of technical implementation, the most important difference from the Cupertinians' technology is that to create AR Emoji, not a bunch of sensors are used to create a three-dimensional model of your face, but a simple front-facing (albeit quite high-quality) eight-megapixel camera with an f / 1.7 aperture.
The Koreans have also rethought the software part:
Unlike Animoji, Samsung's creation not only conveys your facial expressions to the character prepared by the developers, but allows you to bring your personal avatar to life with the same appearance as yours. Of course, if you don't like something on the resulting result, you can edit it – change the skin tone, hair color, hairstyle, add accessories, and so on. Samsung came up with something more or less new and managed to implement its idea relatively successfully, but due to the use of machine learning, and not special hardware, in terms of reliability, AR Emoji loses to abstract animals from Animoji. В то же время, корейский производитель в очередной раз сумел в довольно сжатые сроки создать простую и эффектную альтернативу продукту от Apple, не тратя при этом огромные деньги на R&D.
Conclusion
Neither Apple nor Samsung reinvented the wheel. Due to an almost unlimited budget, they only brought to mind an idea created by third-party developers: we have already seen all this in applications like MSQRD, Meing, Kwai, MRRMRR and dozens of other similar software.
Therefore, there is only one conclusion: buying such an expensive device for yourself or a child because of one opportunity to curl at the camera is not the best idea. If you really want to, try one of the above applications, and there other manufacturers will catch up.