Looking quite prescient, an Apple patent first filed almost two years ago describes a method that would allow users to create virtual group selfies with family and friends while maintaining social distancing – even while people in the selfies are in different locations. Photos can be transmitted and collected for assembly via AirDrop, cellular, Wi-Fi, etc.
And for those people who always have to be front and center in a group photo, everyone in the image can create their own version, rearranging people as they like.
Apple didn’t predict the coronavirus – the patented concept was created to deal with the everyday challenge of creating group selfies: getting everyone in the right place and then framing the shot with a good background…
Each person takes their own selfie on their own phone; each phone removes the background; and then all the isolated images are sent to one phone to assemble the virtual group selfie with a single version of the background. Depth-sensing can be used both to do clean cutouts, and to merge properly with the background.
The phones will use AirDrop type technology to transmit the photos when everyone is in one place, but the patent does allow for doing it all remotely.
MacDailyNews Take: Very cool and would be very clean background removal for those shooting with LiDAR-equipped camera systems as found in iPad Pro and as are said to be coming in Apple’s highest end iPhones later this year.
