Snap Patent | Rendering 3d captions within real-world environments
Patent: Rendering 3d captions within real-world environments
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Publication Number: 20230089838
Publication Date: 2023-03-23
Assignee: Snap Inc
Abstract
Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program and method for rendering three-dimensional captions (3D) in real-world environments depicted in image content. An editing interface is displayed on a client device. The editing interface includes an input component displayed with a view of a camera feed. A first input comprising one or more text characters is received. In response to receiving the first input, a two-dimensional (2D) representation of the one or more text characters is displayed. In response to detecting a second input, a preview interface is displayed. Within the preview interface, a 3D caption based on the one or more text characters is rendered at a position in a 3D space captured within the camera feed. A message is generated that includes the 3D caption rendered at the position in the 3D space captured within the camera feed.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1.A system comprising: at least one hardware processor; a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one hardware processor, cause the at least one hardware processor to perform operations comprising: causing display, on a display device of a computing device, of a first interactive interface, the first interactive interface including a view of a camera feed of the computing device; receiving a first input comprising one or more text characters; in response to receiving the first input, causing display of a two-dimensional (2D) representation of the one or more text characters within the first interactive interface, the 2D representation of the one or more text characters being overlaid on the view of the camera feed; receiving a second input associated with a second interactive interface to preview a three-dimensional (3D) caption based on the one or more text characters; in response to detecting the second input, causing display of a second interactive interface, the causing of the display of the second interactive interface comprising rendering the 3D caption based on the one or more text characters at a position in a 3D space captured within the camera feed; and generating a message that includes the 3D caption rendered at the position in the 3D space captured within the camera feed.
2.The system of claim 1, wherein the causing the display of the second interactive interface further comprises: detecting a reference surface in the 3D space captured within the camera feed; and orienting the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space based on the detected reference surface.
3.The system of claim 2, wherein orienting the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space comprises: assigning the 3D caption to the position in the 3D space based on the detected reference surface; and identifying tracking indicia operable to track the 3D caption in the 3D space.
4.The system of claim 3, wherein the operations further comprise: tracking, by a first tracking subsystem from among a set of tracking subsystems, the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space using the tracking indicia; detecting an interruption of the tracking indicia; and in response to detecting the interruption of the tracking indicia, tracking the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space via a second tracking subsystem from among the set of tracking subsystems.
5.The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving a third input indicative of an edit to the 3D caption; and updating the 3D caption based on the edit.
6.The system of claim 5, wherein the edit to the 3D caption comprises one or more of: an additional text character, a deletion of one or more text characters corresponding to the first input, a scale change, an orientation change, a placement change, a font change, or a color change.
7.The system of claim 1, wherein the second input comprises a change of orientation of the client device.
8.The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving a third input to activate a 3D caption lens, wherein the causing of the display of the 3D caption editing interface is in response to the third input.
9.A method comprising: causing display, on a display device of a computing device, of a first interactive interface, the first interactive interface including a view of a camera feed of the computing device; receiving a first input comprising one or more text characters; in response to receiving the first input, causing display of a two-dimensional (2D) representation of the one or more text characters within the first interactive interface, the 2D representation of the one or more text characters being overlaid on the view of the camera feed; receiving a second input associated with a second interactive interface to preview a three-dimensional (3D) caption based on the one or more text characters; in response to detecting the second input, causing display of a second interactive interface, the causing of the display of the second interactive interface comprising rendering the 3D caption based on the one or more text characters at a position in a 3D space captured within the camera feed; and generating a message that includes the 3D caption rendered at the position in the 3D space captured within the camera feed.
10.The method of claim of claim 9, wherein the causing the display of the second interactive interface further comprises: detecting a reference surface in the 3D space captured within the camera feed; and orienting the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space based on the detected reference surface.
11.The method of claim 10, wherein orienting the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space comprises: assigning the 3D caption to the position in 3D space based on the detected reference surface; and identifying tracking indicia operable to track the 3D caption in the 3D space.
12.The method of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise: tracking, by a first tracking subsystem from among a set of tracking subsystems, the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space using the tracking indicia; detecting an interruption of the tracking indicia; and in response to detecting the interruption of the tracking indicia, tracking the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space via a second tracking subsystem from among the set of tracking subsystems.
13.The method of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving a third input indicative of an edit to the 3D caption; and updating the 3D caption based on the edit.
14.The method of claim 13, wherein the edit to the 3D caption comprises one or more of: an additional text character, a deletion of one or more text characters corresponding to the first input, a scale change, an orientation change, a placement change, a font change, or a color change.
15.The method of claim 9, wherein the second input comprises a change of orientation of the client device.
16.The method of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving a third input to activate a 3D caption lens, wherein the causing of the display of the 3D caption editing interface is in response to the third input.
17.A machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising: causing display, on a display device of a computing device, of a first interactive interface, the first interactive interface including a view of a camera feed of the computing device; receiving a first input comprising one or more text characters; in response to receiving the first input, causing display of a two-dimensional (2D) representation of the one or more text characters within the first interactive interface, the 2D representation of the one or more text characters being overlaid on the view of the camera feed; receiving a second input associated with a second interactive interface to preview a three-dimensional (3D) caption based on the one or more text characters; in response to detecting the second input, causing display of a second interactive interface, the causing of the display of the second interactive interface comprising rendering the 3D caption based on the one or more text characters at a position in a 3D space captured within the camera feed; and generating a message that includes the 3D caption rendered at the position in the 3D space captured within the camera feed.
18.The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the causing the display of the second interactive interface further comprises: detecting a reference surface in the 3D space captured within the camera feed; and orienting the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space based on the detected reference surface.
19.The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein orienting the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space comprises: assigning the 3D caption to the position in the 3D space based on the detected reference surface; and identifying tracking indicia operable to track the 3D caption in the 3D space.
20.The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise: tracking, by a first tracking subsystem from among a set of tracking subsystems, the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space using the tracking indicia; detecting an interruption of the tracking indicia; and in response to detecting the interruption of the tracking indicia, tracking the 3D caption at the position in the 3D space via a second tracking subsystem from among the set of tracking subsystems.
Description
PRIORITY CLAIM
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/319,399, filed May 13, 2021, which application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/696,600, filed Nov. 26, 2019, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,210,850, which is a non-provisional of, and claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/771,964, entitled “RENDERING 3D CAPTIONS WITHIN REAL-WORLD ENVIRONMENTS,” filed on Nov. 27, 2018, and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/775,713, entitled “TEXTURE MESH BUILDING,” filed on Dec. 5, 2018, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present disclosure relates generally to visual presentations and more particularly to rendering virtual objects within a real-world environment captured in a camera feed of a computing device.
BACKGROUND
Augmented reality (AR) refers to supplementing the view of real-world objects and environments with computer-generated graphics content. Virtual rendering systems can be used to create, view, and interact with engaging and entertaining AR experiences, in which 3D virtual object graphics content appears to be present in the real world. Virtual rendering systems are frequently implemented within mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the figure number in which that element is first introduced. Some embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a messaging system for exchanging data (e.g., messages and associated content) over a network, according to example embodiments.
FIG. 2 is block diagram illustrating further details regarding a messaging system, according to example embodiments.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating data which may be stored in the database of the messaging server system, according to example embodiments.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a message generated by a messaging client application for communication, according to example embodiments.
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example access-limiting process, in terms of which access to content (e.g., an ephemeral message, and associated multimedia payload of data) or a content collection (e.g., an ephemeral message story) may be time-limited (e.g., made ephemeral), according to example embodiments.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating various components of a three-dimensional (3D) caption system, which may be provided as part of the messaging system, according to example embodiments.
FIGS. 7-9 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of the 3D caption system in performing a method for generating a message that includes a 3D caption, according to example embodiments.
FIGS. 10-14 are interface diagrams that illustrate various interfaces provided by the messaging system, according to some example embodiments.
FIGS. 15A and 15B are interface diagrams that illustrate various interfaces provided by the messaging system, according to some example embodiments.
FIGS. 16A-16C are interface diagrams that illustrate various interfaces provided by the messaging system, according to some example embodiments.
FIGS. 17A-17D are interface diagrams that illustrate various interfaces provided by the messaging system, according to some example embodiments.
FIGS. 18A and 18B are interface diagrams that illustrate various interfaces provided by the messaging system, according to some example embodiments.
FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a representative software architecture, which may be used in conjunction with various hardware architectures herein described, according to example embodiments.
FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine able to read instructions from a machine-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to example embodiments.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The description that follows includes systems, methods, techniques, instruction sequences, and computing machine program products that embody illustrative embodiments of the disclosure. In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide an understanding of various embodiments of the inventive subject matter. It will be evident, however, to those skilled in the art, that embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. In general, well-known instruction instances, protocols, structures, and techniques are not necessarily shown in detail.
Traditional virtual rendering systems can be subject to presentation problems due to environmental conditions, user actions, unanticipated visual interruption between a camera and the object being rendered, and the like. This can cause a virtual object to disappear or otherwise behave erratically, which breaks the illusion of the virtual objects being present in the real world. For example, a virtual rendering system may not present virtual objects in a consistent manner with respect to real-world items as a user moves about through the real world.
Additionally, conventional virtual rendering systems are often lacking in functionality related to authoring AR content because these conventional systems are not optimized for the limited display size of mobile computing devices. As an example, conventional virtual rendering systems are often limited to predefined 3D virtual objects and do not provide users with the ability to create or edit these virtual objects. As another example, user interfaces of conventional virtual rendering systems often require users to navigate between various views or windows to access certain content-authoring functions. These systems usually provide buttons or other interactive elements to facilitate navigation between views and windows, but the buttons and other interactive elements often utilize much of the available display space, which may obscure AR content being authored or require a user to navigate to yet another window or view to inspect the AR content being authored. As a result, the AR content authoring process provided by conventional virtual rendering systems may be a time-consuming and tedious process that requires users to repeatedly shuffle through various views and windows to ultimately produce content that may not meet the user's expectations.
Aspects of the present disclosure include systems, methods, techniques, instruction sequences, and computing machine program products for creating virtual three-dimensional (3D) objects, such as a 3D caption, and rendering the virtual 3D objects within a camera feed, as if they exist in real-world environments. For example, media overlays of 3D captions can be generated by the system and displayed in conjunction with real-world environment content (e.g., images and/or video) generated by an image-capturing device (e.g., a digital camera). 3D captions include one or more text characters (e.g., letters, symbols, and/or emojis). Users may use the 3D captioning functionality described herein to augment image data (e.g., images and/or video) to describe, comment on, or provide additional meaning or context to the real-world environment content. The system includes user interfaces to create and edit 3D captions. These user interfaces improve upon interfaces of prior systems by providing greater functionality and enhanced mechanisms for interaction such as by providing a preview of 3D captions that are in progress as they will be rendered within real-world environments, which allows users to make any desired modification before committing. Given these improvements, the system may be particularly suitable in mobile device implementations in which a display screen size is limited.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example messaging system 100 for exchanging data (e.g., messages and associated content) over a network. The messaging system 100 includes multiple client devices 102, each of which hosts a number of applications including a messaging client application 104. Each messaging client application 104 is communicatively coupled to other instances of the messaging client application 104 and a messaging server system 108 via a network 106 (e.g., the Internet).
Accordingly, each messaging client application 104 can communicate and exchange data with another messaging client application 104 and with the messaging server system 108 via the network 106. The data exchanged between messaging client applications 104, and between a messaging client application 104 and the messaging server system 108, includes functions (e.g., commands to invoke functions) as well as payload data (e.g., text, audio, video, or other multimedia data).
The messaging server system 108 provides server-side functionality via the network 106 to a particular messaging client application 104. While certain functions of the messaging system 100 are described herein as being performed by either a messaging client application 104 or by the messaging server system 108, it will be appreciated that the location of certain functionality either within the messaging client application 104 or the messaging server system 108 is a design choice. For example, it may be technically preferable to initially deploy certain technology and functionality within the messaging server system 108, but to later migrate this technology and functionality to the messaging client application 104 where a client device 102 has a sufficient processing capacity.
The messaging server system 108 supports various services and operations that are provided to the messaging client application 104. Such operations include transmitting data to, receiving data from, and processing data generated by the messaging client application 104. This data may include message content, client device information, geolocation information, media annotation and overlays, message content persistence conditions, social network information, and live event information, as examples. Data exchanges within the messaging system 100 are invoked and controlled through functions available via user interfaces (UIs) of the messaging client application 104.
Turning now specifically to the messaging server system 108, an Application Program Interface (API) server 110 is coupled to, and provides a programmatic interface to, an application server 112. The application server 112 is communicatively coupled to a database server 118, which facilitates access to a database 120 in which is stored data associated with messages processed by the application server 112.
Dealing specifically with the API server 110, this server receives and transmits message data (e.g., commands and message payloads) between the client device 102 and the application server 112. Specifically, the API server 110 provides a set of interfaces (e.g., routines and protocols) that can be called or queried by the messaging client application 104 in order to invoke functionality of the application server 112. The API server 110 exposes various functions supported by the application server 112, including account registration, login functionality, the sending of messages, via the application server 112, from a particular messaging client application 104 to another messaging client application 104, the sending of media files (e.g., images or video) from a messaging client application 104 to the messaging server application 114, and for possible access by another messaging client application 104, the setting of a collection of media data (e.g., story), the retrieval of such collections, the retrieval of a list of friends of a user of a client device 102, the retrieval of messages and content, the adding and deleting of friends to a social graph, the location of friends within a social graph, opening an application event (e.g., relating to the messaging client application 104).
The application server 112 hosts a number of applications and subsystems, including a messaging server application 114, an image processing system 116, and a social network system 122. The messaging server application 114 implements a number of message processing technologies and functions, particularly related to the aggregation and other processing of content (e.g., textual and multimedia content) included in messages received from multiple instances of the messaging client application 104. As will be described in further detail, the text and media content from multiple sources may be aggregated into collections of content (e.g., called stories or galleries). These collections are then made available, by the messaging server application 114, to the messaging client application 104. Other processor and memory intensive processing of data may also be performed server-side by the messaging server application 114, in view of the hardware requirements for such processing.
The application server 112 also includes an image processing system 116 that is dedicated to performing various image processing operations, typically with respect to images or video received within the payload of a message at the messaging server application 114.
The social network system 122 supports various social networking functions and services, and makes these functions and services available to the messaging server application 114. To this end, the social network system 122 maintains and accesses an entity graph within the database 120. Examples of functions and services supported by the social network system 122 include the identification of other users of the messaging system 100 with which a particular user has relationships or is “following,” and also the identification of other entities and interests of a particular user.
The application server 112 is communicatively coupled to a database server 118, which facilitates access to a database 120 in which is stored data associated with messages processed by the messaging server application 114.
FIG. 2 is block diagram illustrating further details regarding the messaging system 100, according to example embodiments. Specifically, the messaging system 100 is shown to comprise the messaging client application 104 and the application server 112, which in turn embody a number of some subsystems, namely an ephemeral timer system 202, a collection management system 204, and an annotation system 206.
The ephemeral timer system 202 is responsible for enforcing the temporary access to content permitted by the messaging client application 104 and the messaging server application 114. To this end, the ephemeral timer system 202 incorporates a number of timers that, based on duration and display parameters associated with a message, or collection of messages (e.g., a story), selectively display and enable access to messages and associated content via the messaging client application 104. Further details regarding the operation of the ephemeral timer system 202 are provided below.
The collection management system 204 is responsible for managing collections of media (e.g., collections of text, image, video, and audio data). In some examples, a collection of content (e.g., messages, including images, video, text, and audio) may be organized into an “event gallery” or an “event story.” Such a collection may be made available for a specified time period, such as the duration of an event to which the content relates. For example, content relating to a music concert may be made available as a “story” for the duration of that music concert. The collection management system 204 may also be responsible for publishing an icon that provides notification of the existence of a particular collection to the user interface of the messaging client application 104.
The collection management system 204 furthermore includes a curation interface 208 that allows a collection manager to manage and curate a particular collection of content. For example, the curation interface 208 enables an event organizer to curate a collection of content relating to a specific event (e.g., delete inappropriate content or redundant messages). Additionally, the collection management system 204 employs machine vision (or image recognition technology) and content rules to automatically curate a content collection. In certain embodiments, compensation may be paid to a user for inclusion of user-generated content into a collection. In such cases, the curation interface 208 operates to automatically make payments to such users for the use of their content.
The annotation system 206 provides various functions that enable a user to annotate or otherwise modify or edit media content associated with a message. For example, the annotation system 206 provides functions related to the generation and publishing of media overlays for messages processed by the messaging system 100. The annotation system 206 operatively supplies a media overlay (e.g., a filter or lens) to the messaging client application 104. In another example, the annotation system 206 operatively supplies a media overlay to the messaging client application 104 based on other information, such as social network information of the user of the client device 102. A media overlay may include audio and visual content and visual effects. Examples of audio and visual content include pictures, texts, logos, animations, and sound effects. An example of a visual effect includes color overlaying.
The audio and visual content or the visual effects can be applied to a media content item (e.g., a photo) at the client device 102. For example, the media overlay including text that can be overlaid on top of an image or video generated by the client device 102. In another example, the media overlay includes an identification of a location overlay (e.g., Venice beach), a name of a live event, or a name of a merchant overlay (e.g., Beach Coffee House).
The annotation system 206 includes a 3D caption system 210 that provides functionality to generate, display, and track virtual objects at positions relative to the client device 102, within a 3D space captured within a camera feed of the client device 102 (also referred to by those of ordinary skill in the art as a “camera stream,” “a video stream,” or a “video feed”). The virtual objects generated, displayed, and tracked by the 3D caption system 210 include 3D captions. A 3D caption is a 3D representation of one or more text characters (e.g., letters, symbols, and emojis).
The 3D caption system 210 provides functionality to enable users to author, edit, and preview 3D captions. To this end, the 3D caption system 210 includes an editing interface 212 and a preview interface 214. The editing interface 212 allows a user to author and edit a 3D caption. The editing interface 212 enables users to author 3D captions using keyboard input and enable users to edit 3D captions using keyboard input and other types of input including touchscreen-based gestures. The preview interface 214 allows a user to preview and review a 3D caption before generating a message that includes the 3D caption. The preview interface 214 may also enable the user to edit the presentation of the 3D captions (e.g., by changing a scale, orientation, placement, font, or color of the 3D caption).
The 3D caption system 210 may cause a 3D caption to be displayed (e.g., on a display of the client device 102) at position in a 3D space captured within the camera feed based on a reference surface (e.g., the ground) detected in the 3D space. As will be discussed in further detail below, the 3D caption system 210 comprises a redundant tracking system comprising a set of tracking subsystems configured to track a 3D caption at position in 3D space based on a set of tracking indicia, and transition between tracking subsystems. The 3D caption system 210 may further transition between tracking with six degrees of freedom (6DoF) and tracking with three degrees of freedom (3DoF) based on an availability of the tracking indicia.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram 300 illustrating data, which may be stored in the database 120 of the messaging server system 108, according to certain example embodiments. While the content of the database 120 is shown to comprise a number of tables, it will be appreciated that the data could be stored in other types of data structures (e.g., as an object-oriented database).
The database 120 includes message data stored within a message table 314. An entity table 302 stores entity data, including an entity graph 304. Entities for which records are maintained within the entity table 302 may include individuals, corporate entities, organizations, objects, places, events, and so forth. Regardless of type, any entity regarding which the messaging server system 108 stores data may be a recognized entity. Each entity is provided with a unique identifier, as well as an entity type identifier (not shown).
The entity graph 304 furthermore stores information regarding relationships and associations between entities. Such relationships may be social, professional (e.g., work at a common corporation or organization), interested-based, or activity-based, merely for example.
The database 120 also stores annotation data, in the example form of filters and lenses, in an annotation table 312. Filters and lens for which data is stored within the annotation table 312 are associated with and applied to videos (for which data is stored in a video table 310) and/or images (for which data is stored in an image table 308). Filters are overlays that are displayed as overlaid on an image or video during presentation to a recipient user. Lenses include real-time visual effects and/or sounds that may be added to real-world environments depicted in a camera feed (e.g., while a user is viewing the camera feed via one or more interfaces of the messaging system 100, while composing a message, or during presentation to a recipient user). In comparison, filters are applied to an image or video after the image or video is captured at the client device 102 while a lens is applied to the camera feed of the client device 102 such that when an image or videos is captured at the client device 102 with a lens applied, the applied lens is incorporated as part of the image or video that is generated. Filters and lenses may be of various types, including user-selected filters and lens from a gallery of filters or a gallery of lenses presented to a sending user by the messaging client application 104 when the sending user is composing a message.
As mentioned above, the video table 310 stores video data which, in one embodiment, is associated with messages for which records are maintained within the message table 314. Similarly, the image table 308 stores image data associated with messages for which message data is stored in the entity table 302. The entity table 302 may associate various annotations from the annotation table 312 with various images and videos stored in the image table 308 and the video table 310.
A story table 306 stores data regarding collections of messages and associated image, video, or audio data, which are compiled into a collection (e.g., a story or a gallery). The creation of a particular collection may be initiated by a particular user (e.g., each user for which a record is maintained in the entity table 302). A user may create a “personal story” in the form of a collection of content that has been created and sent/broadcast by that user. To this end, the UI of the messaging client application 104 may include an icon that is user-selectable to enable a sending user to add specific content to his or her personal story.
A collection may also constitute a “live story,” which is a collection of content from multiple users that is created manually, automatically, or using a combination of manual and automatic techniques. For example, a “live story” may constitute a curated stream of user-submitted content from various locations and events. Users whose client devices have location services enabled and are at a common location event at a particular time may, for example, be presented with an option, via a user interface of the messaging client application 104, to contribute content to a particular live story. The live story may be identified to the user by the messaging client application 104, based on his or her location. The end result is a “live story” told from a community perspective.
A further type of content collection is known as a “location story,” which enables a user whose client device 102 is located within a specific geographic location (e.g., on a college or university campus) to contribute to a particular collection. In some embodiments, a contribution to a location story may require a second degree of authentication to verify that the end user belongs to a specific organization or other entity (e.g., is a student on the university campus).
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a message 400, according to some in some embodiments, generated by a messaging client application 104 for communication to a further messaging client application 104 or the messaging server application 114. The content of a particular message 400 is used to populate the message table 314 stored within the database 120, accessible by the messaging server application 114. Similarly, the content of a message 400 is stored in memory as “in-transit” or “in-flight” data of the client device 102 or the application server 112. The message 400 is shown to include the following components:
A message identifier 402: a unique identifier that identifies the message 400.
A message text payload 404: text, to be generated by a user via a user interface of the client device 102 and that is included in the message 400.
A message image payload 406: image data, captured by a camera component of a client device 102 or retrieved from memory of a client device 102, and that is included in the message 400.
A message video payload 408: video data, captured by a camera component or retrieved from a memory component of the client device 102 and that is included in the message 400.
A message audio payload 410: audio data, captured by a microphone or retrieved from the memory component of the client device 102, and that is included in the message 400.
A message annotations 412: annotation data (e.g., filters, stickers or other enhancements) that represents annotations to be applied to message image payload 406, message video payload 408, or message audio payload 410 of the message 400.
A message duration parameter 414: parameter value indicating, in seconds, the amount of time for which content of the message (e.g., the message image payload 406, message video payload 408, message audio payload 410) is to be presented or made accessible to a user via the messaging client application 104.
A message geolocation parameter 416: geolocation data (e.g., latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates) associated with the content payload of the message. Multiple message geolocation parameter 416 values may be included in the payload, with each of these parameter values being associated with respect to content items included in the content (e.g., a specific image into within the message image payload 406, or a specific video in the message video payload 408).
A message story identifier 418: identifier value identifying one or more content collections (e.g., “stories”) with which a particular content item in the message image payload 406 of the message 400 is associated. For example, multiple images within the message image payload 406 may each be associated with multiple content collections using identifier values.
A message tag 420: each message 400 may be tagged with multiple tags, each of which is indicative of the subject matter of content included in the message payload. For example, where a particular image included in the message image payload 406 depicts an animal (e.g., a lion), a tag value may be included within the message tag 420 that is indicative of the relevant animal. Tag values may be generated manually, based on user input, or may be automatically generated using, for example, image recognition.
A message sender identifier 422: an identifier (e.g., a messaging system identifier, email address, or device identifier) indicative of a user of the client device 102 on which the message 400 was generated and from which the message 400 was sent.
A message receiver identifier 424: an identifier (e.g., a messaging system identifier, email address or device identifier) indicative of a user of the client device 102 to which the message 400 is addressed.
The contents (e.g., values) of the various components of message 400 may be pointers to locations in tables within which content data values are stored. For example, an image value in the message image payload 406 may be a pointer to (or address of) a location within an image table 308. Similarly, values within the message video payload 408 may point to data stored within a video table 310, values stored within the message annotations 412 may point to data stored in an annotation table 312, values stored within the message story identifier 418 may point to data stored in a story table 306, and values stored within the message sender identifier 422 and the message receiver identifier 424 may point to user records stored within an entity table 302.
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an access-limiting process 500, in terms of which access to content (e.g., an ephemeral message 502, and associated multimedia payload of data) or a content collection (e.g., an ephemeral message story 504), may be time-limited (e.g., made ephemeral).
An ephemeral message 502 is shown to be associated with a message duration parameter 506, the value of which determines an amount of time that the ephemeral message 502 will be displayed to a receiving user of the ephemeral message 502 by the messaging client application 104. In one embodiment, where the messaging client application 104 is an application client, an ephemeral message 502 is viewable by a receiving user for up to a maximum of 10 seconds, depending on the amount of time that the sending user specifies using the message duration parameter 506.
The message duration parameter 506 and the message receiver identifier 424 are shown to be inputs to a message timer 512, which is responsible for determining the amount of time that the ephemeral message 502 is shown to a particular receiving user identified by the message receiver identifier 424. In particular, the ephemeral message 502 will only be shown to the relevant receiving user for a time period determined by the value of the message duration parameter 506. The message timer 512 is shown to provide output to a more generalized ephemeral timer system 202, which is responsible for the overall timing of display of content (e.g., an ephemeral message 502) to a receiving user.
The ephemeral message 502 is shown in FIG. 5 to be included within an ephemeral message story 504 (e.g., a personal story, or an event story). The ephemeral message story 504 has an associated story duration parameter 508, a value of which determines a time-duration for which the ephemeral message story 504 is presented and accessible to users of the messaging system 100. The story duration parameter 508, for example, may be the duration of a music concert, where the ephemeral message story 504 is a collection of content pertaining to that concert. Alternatively, a user (either the owning user or a curator user) may specify the value for the story duration parameter 508 when performing the setup and creation of the ephemeral message story 504.
Additionally, each ephemeral message 502 within the ephemeral message story 504 has an associated story participation parameter 510, a value of which determines the duration of time for which the ephemeral message 502 will be accessible within the context of the ephemeral message story 504. Accordingly, a particular ephemeral message story 504 may “expire” and become inaccessible within the context of the ephemeral message story 504, prior to the ephemeral message story 504 itself expiring in terms of the story duration parameter 508. The story duration parameter 508, story participation parameter 510, and message receiver identifier 424 each provide input to a story timer 514, which operationally determines, firstly, whether a particular ephemeral message 502 of the ephemeral message story 504 will be displayed to a particular receiving user and, if so, for how long. Note that the ephemeral message story 504 is also aware of the identity of the particular receiving user as a result of the message receiver identifier 424.
Accordingly, the story timer 514 operationally controls the overall lifespan of an associated ephemeral message story 504, as well as an individual ephemeral message 502 included in the ephemeral message story 504. In one embodiment, each and every ephemeral message 502 within the ephemeral message story 504 remains viewable and accessible for a time-period specified by the story duration parameter 508. In a further embodiment, a certain ephemeral message 502 may expire, within the context of ephemeral message story 504, based on a story participation parameter 510. Note that a message duration parameter 506 may still determine the duration of time for which a particular ephemeral message 502 is displayed to a receiving user, even within the context of the ephemeral message story 504. Accordingly, the message duration parameter 506 determines the duration of time that a particular ephemeral message 502 is displayed to a receiving user, regardless of whether the receiving user is viewing that ephemeral message 502 inside or outside the context of an ephemeral message story 504.
The ephemeral timer system 202 may furthermore operationally remove a particular ephemeral message 502 from the ephemeral message story 504 based on a determination that it has exceeded an associated story participation parameter 510. For example, when a sending user has established a story participation parameter 510 of 24 hours from posting, the ephemeral timer system 202 will remove the relevant ephemeral message 502 from the ephemeral message story 504 after the specified 24 hours. The ephemeral timer system 202 also operates to remove an ephemeral message story 504 either when the story participation parameter 510 for each and every ephemeral message 502 within the ephemeral message story 504 has expired, or when the ephemeral message story 504 itself has expired in terms of the story duration parameter 508.
In certain use cases, a creator of a particular ephemeral message story 504 may specify an indefinite story duration parameter 508. In this case, the expiration of the story participation parameter 510 for the last remaining ephemeral message 502 within the ephemeral message story 504 will determine when the ephemeral message story 504 itself expires. In this case, a new ephemeral message 502, added to the ephemeral message story 504, with a new story participation parameter 510, effectively extends the life of an ephemeral message story 504 to equal the value of the story participation parameter 510.
Responsive to the ephemeral timer system 202 determining that an ephemeral message story 504 has expired (e.g., is no longer accessible), the ephemeral timer system 202 communicates with the messaging system 100 (and, for example, specifically the messaging client application 104) to cause an indicium (e.g., an icon) associated with the relevant ephemeral message story 504 to no longer be displayed within a user interface of the messaging client application 104. Similarly, when the ephemeral timer system 202 determines that the message duration parameter 506 for a particular ephemeral message 502 has expired, the ephemeral timer system 202 causes the messaging client application 104 to no longer display an indicium (e.g., an icon or textual identification) associated with the ephemeral message 502.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating functional components of the 3D caption system 210 that configure the 3D caption system 210 to render 3D captions in a 3D space (e.g., a real-world environment) depicted in a live camera feed. The 3D caption system 210 is shown as including a rendering component 602, a tracking system 604, and a disruption detection component 606. The various components of the 3D caption system 210 may be configured to communicate with each other (e.g., via a bus, shared memory, or a switch). Although not illustrated in FIG. 6, in some embodiments, the 3D caption system 210 may include or may be in communication with a camera configured to produce a camera feed comprising image data that includes a sequence of images (e.g., a video).
Any one or more of the components described may be implemented using hardware alone (e.g., one or more of the processors 608 of a machine) or a combination of hardware and software. For example, any component described of the 3D caption system 210 may physically include an arrangement of one or more of the processors 608 (e.g., a subset of or among the one or more processors of the machine) configured to perform the operations described herein for that component. As another example, any component of the 3D caption system 210 may include software, hardware, or both, that configure an arrangement of one or more processors 608 (e.g., among the one or more processors of the machine) to perform the operations described herein for that component. Accordingly, different components of the 3D caption system 210 may include and configure different arrangements of such processors 608 or a single arrangement of such processors 608 at different points in time.
Moreover, any two or more components of the 3D caption system 210 may be combined into a single component, and the functions described herein for a single component may be subdivided among multiple components. Furthermore, according to various example embodiments, components described herein as being implemented within a single machine, database, or device may be distributed across multiple machines, databases, or devices.
The tracking system 604 may comprise a first tracking sub-system 604A, a second tracking sub-system 604B, and a third tracking sub-system 604C. Each tracking sub-system tracks the position of a 3D caption within the 3D space based on a set of tracking indicia.
Tracking systems are subject to frequent tracking failure due to environmental conditions, user actions, unanticipated visual interruption between camera and object/scene being tracked, and so forth. Traditionally, such tracking failures would cause a disruption in the presentation of virtual objects in a 3D space. For example, a virtual object may disappear or otherwise behave erratically, thereby interrupting the illusion of the virtual object being presented within the 3D space. This undermines the perceived quality of the 3D experience as a whole.
Traditional tracking systems rely on a single approach (Natural Feature Tracking (NFT), Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM), Gyroscopic, etc.) that each have breaking points in real-world usage due to inaccurate sensor data, movement, loss or occlusion of visual marker, or dynamic interruptions to a scene. Further, each approach may have individual limitations in capability. For example, a gyroscopic tracking system can only track items with 3DoF. Further, utilization of a single tracking system provides inaccurate or unstable position estimation, due to inherent limitations of each individual system. For example, an NFT system may not provide sufficient pitch, yaw, or roll estimation due to the inaccuracies of visual tracking alone, while gyroscopic tracking systems provide inaccurate translation (up, down, left, right).
To address the foregoing issues with traditional tracking systems, the 3D caption system 210 comprises multiple redundant tracking sub-systems 604A-C that enable seamless transitions between tracking sub-systems. The multiple redundant tracking sub-systems 604A-C address the issues with traditional tracking systems by merging multiple tracking approaches into a single tracking system 604. The tracking system 604 is able to combine 6DoF and 3DoF tracking techniques through combining and transitioning between multiple tracking systems based on the availability of tracking indicia tracked by the tracking systems. Thus, as the indicia tracked by any one tracking system becomes unavailable, the 3D caption system 210 seamlessly switches between tracking in 6DoF and 3DoF, thereby providing the user with an uninterrupted experience. For example, in the case of visual tracking systems (e.g., NFT, SLAM), tracking indicia typically analyzed to determine orientation may be replaced with gyroscopic tracking indicia from a gyroscopic tracking system. This would thereby enable transitioning between tracking in 6Dof and 3DoF based on the availability of tracking indicia.
In some example embodiments, to transition between tracking in 6DoF and 3DoF, the 3D caption system 210 gathers and stores tracking indicia within a tracking matrix that includes translation indicia (e.g., up, down, left, right) and rotation indicia (e.g., pitch, yaw, roll). The translation indicia gathered by an NFT system may thereby be extracted from the tracking matrix and utilized when future translation indicia gathered by the NFT system become inaccurate or unavailable. In the meantime, the rotation indicia continue to be provided by the gyroscope. In this way, when the mobile device loses tracking indicia, the tracked objects that are presented in the 3D space will not be changed abruptly at the frame when the tracking indicia are lost. Subsequently, when the target tracking object reappears in the screen, and a new translation T1 is obtained, the translation part of the view matrix will then be taking advantage of the new translation T1, and use T1-T0 as the translation of the view matrix.
The rendering component 602 of the 3D caption system 210 is configured to generate and render 3D captions in a 3D space captured within a live camera feed produced by a camera. For example, the rendering component 602 may generate a 3D caption based on input received from a user (e.g., keyboard input) and render the 3D caption in the 3D space captured within the live camera feed. In rendering the 3D caption, the 3D caption system 210 assigns the 3D caption to a position in the 3D space based on a real-world reference surface detected in the 3D space.
The 3D caption system 210 may thereafter track the position of the 3D caption relative to a user device in the 3D space by one or more tracking systems in 6DoF. For example, the one or more tracking systems of the 3D caption system 210 may collect and analyze a set of tracking indicia (e.g., roll, pitch, yaw, natural features, etc.) in order to track the position of the 3D caption relative to the user device in the 3D space with 6DoF. In such embodiments, the 3D caption system 210 may transition between tracking systems based on the availability of the tracked indicia to maintain consistent tracking in 6DoF.
The disruption detection component 606 monitors tracking indicia to detect disruptions. Upon the disruption detection component 606 detecting an interruption of one or more indicia, such that tracking in 6DoF becomes unreliable or impossible, the 3D caption system 210 transitions to tracking the 3D caption in the 3D space in 3DoF in order to prevent an interruption of the display. For example, the 3D caption system 210 may transition from a first tracking system (or first set of tracking systems among the set of tracking systems) to a second tracking system among the set of tracking systems (or second set of tracking systems), wherein the second tracking system is capable of tracking the 3D caption with 3DoF in the 3D space, based on the tracking indicia available.
In some example embodiments, the set of tracking systems of the 3D caption system 210 includes a gyroscopic tracking system, an NFT system, as well as a SLAM tracking system. Each tracking system among the set of tracking systems may analyze tracking indicia in order to track a position of a virtual object within a 3D space. For example, to track a virtual object with 6DoF, the 3D caption system 210 may require at least six tracking indicia to be available. As tracking indicia become obstructed or unavailable for various reasons, the 3D caption system 210 may transition between the available tracking systems among the set of tracking systems in order to maintain 6DoF, or transition to 3DoF if necessary.
It will be readily appreciated that the 3D caption system 210 provides consistent rendered virtual objects (e.g., 3D captions) in real-world 3D spaces in a wide variety of environments and situations. In many applications it can be desirable to provide firm consistency for the locations of these virtual objects as one or more users, cameras, or other tracking items move around in the environment. This can involve the recognition and use of a specific fixed reference point (e.g., a fixed surface) in the real-world environment. Not using a fixed reference point or item can result in floating or other undesirable inconsistencies in the rendering and presentation of the virtual objects.
To ensure firm consistency in the location of virtual objects, annotation data in the example form of a presentation lens that is specific for the 3D object tracking and rendering described herein may be employed. In particular, a surface-aware lens is a presentation lens that identifies and references a real-world surface (e.g., the ground) for the consistent rendering and presentation of virtual objects in 3D space. The surface-aware lens can be a specific portion or subcomponent within the rendering component 602. This surface-aware lens of the rendering component 602 can be configured to recognize a reference surface based on visual camera content, and may also utilize other device inputs (e.g., gyroscope, accelerometer, compass) to determine what is an appropriate surface within a 3D space depicted in a live camera feed. Once the reference surface has been determined, then a virtual object can be accomplished with respect to that reference surface. In an example, the reference surface in the 3D space is a ground surface. The 3D caption system 210 may render the 3D caption at a position in the 3D space such that the caption appears to be on or slightly above the 3D space.
FIGS. 7-9 are a flowchart illustrating example operations of the 3D caption system in performing a method 700 for generating a message that includes a 3D caption, according to example embodiments. The method 700 may be embodied in computer-readable instructions for execution by one or more processors such that the operations of the method 700 may be performed in part or in whole by the functional components of the 3D caption system 210; accordingly, the method 700 is described below by way of example with reference thereto. However, it shall be appreciated that at least some of the operations of the method 700 may be deployed on various other hardware configurations and the method 700 is not intended to be limited to the 3D caption system 210.
At operation 702, the annotation system 206 receives a first input to activate a 3D caption lens. The 3D caption lens may be selected from a group of lenses.
At operation 704, the 3D caption system 210 causes display of an editing interface 212 on the client device 102. The editing interface 212 enables a user to input one or more text characters that provide a basis for a 3D caption. To this end, the editing interface 212 may include a keyboard to enable the user to input the one or more text characters. Text characters input by the user are initially displayed by the 3D caption system 210 as a two-dimensional (2D) overlay on a camera feed produced by a camera of the client device 102.
At operation 706, the 3D caption system 210 receives a second input comprising one or more text characters input by a user of the client device using the editing interface 212.
At operation 708, the 3D caption system 210 causes display of the one or more text characters in the editing interface 212. As noted above, a 2D representation of the one or more text characters is displayed in the editing interface 212 as an overlay on top of a camera feed produced by a camera of the client device 102. Example aspects of the editing interface 212 are discussed below and illustrated in FIGS. 11, 12, and 15A.
At operation 710, the 3D caption system 210 detects a third input, and in response to detecting the third input, the 3D caption system 210 causes display of a preview interface 214, at operation 712. The third input may, for example, include a motion-based input such as a change of orientation of the client device 102. For example, if the user is pointing the camera of the client device 102 at an upward orientation, the 2D representation of the one or more text characters is presented in the editing interface 212. If the user changes the orientation of the camera to be facing downward, the 3D caption system 210 may toggle from displaying the editing interface 212 to displaying the preview interface 214. By allowing users to toggle between the editing interface 212 and the preview interface 214, rather than displaying additional buttons to facilitate this functionality, the 3D caption system 210 provides a convenient mechanism to toggle between interfaces that reduces consumption of display area, which may be provide an advantage in implementations on devices that have a limited display size.
The preview interface 214 includes a presentation of a 3D caption generated based on the one or more text characters input by the user. The 3D caption is a 3D representation of the one or more text characters input by the user. The 3D caption may be rendered at a position in a 3D space captured in the camera feed that is based on a detected reference surface in the 3D space such as a ground or floor surface. For example, the 3D caption system may render the 3D caption such that it appears to be attached to the detected reference surface.
While presenting the 3D caption within the preview interface 214, the 3D caption system 210 may detect movement of the client device that causes a second 3D space to be captured in the camera feed. The 3D caption system 210 may animate the 3D caption, moving from the first 3D space to the second 3D space during the movement of the client device 102. As part of animating the movement of moving the 3D caption, the 3D caption system 210 may render the 3D caption with a lower opacity than while stationary.
At operation 714, the messaging system 100 generates a message that includes one or more images having the rendered 3D caption overlaid thereon. In generating the message, the messaging system 100 may record (e.g., store in memory) one or more images from the camera feed with the 3D caption applied. The messaging system 100 may further apply one or more user-specified filters to the recorded image(s) in generating the message. Upon recording the one or more images from the camera feed, the messaging system 100 may provide the user with the ability to cancel generation of the message (e.g., via one or more interface features). If the user cancels generation of the message, the messaging system 100 reverts to displaying the 3D caption within the preview interface 214. In this way, the messaging system 100 provides the user with an ability to generate a new message without having to recreate the 3D caption.
As shown in FIG. 8, the method 700 may, in some embodiments, include operations 802, 804, 806, 808, 810, and 812. Consistent with these embodiments, the operations 802, 804, 806, 808, 810, and 812 may be performed as part of operation 712 (e.g., as a sub-routine or sub-operation) where the 3D caption system 210 causes display of a preview interface comprising a presentation of a 3D caption within a real-world environment captured within a camera feed.
At operation 802, the rendering component 602 detects a real-world reference surface in 3D space depicted in a camera feed of a camera. In some embodiments, the reference surface can be a user-specified reference surface. As such, the detecting of the reference surface is based on user input such as a tap or other gesture to indicate a reference surface. Such a reference surface can be the floor surface or the ground surface in many cases, although other fixed and ascertainable surfaces can also be used. For example, the rendering component 602 may determine the reference surface by identifying a fixed surface based on an analysis of visual camera content, and may also utilize other device inputs (e.g., gyroscope, accelerometer, compass) to ascertain what is an appropriate surface within a 3D space captured by the camera view. In various embodiments, a confirmation that the proper reference surface has been indicated or highlighted can be requested from the user. In some situations, the system may indicate that a proper reference surface cannot be detected, such that further input or help from the user may be needed.
At operation 804, the rendering component 602 orients the 3D caption (e.g., generated based on user input) based on the detected reference surface. The orienting of the 3D caption may include assigning the 3D caption to a position in 3D space based on the detected reference surface, and identifying a set of tracking indicia to be used by the tracking system 604 in tracking the 3D caption in the 3D space. The position to which the 3D caption is assigned may correspond to the reference surface or a predefined distance above the reference surface.
At operation 806, the rendering component 602 renders the 3D caption with respect to the reference surface. More specifically, the rendering of the 3D caption with respect to the reference surface may include rendering and maintaining the 3D caption at the assigned position within the 3D space. Thus, in instances in which the assigned position is a predefined distance from the reference surface, the rendering of the 3D caption may include rendering and maintaining the virtual object at the predefined distance from the reference surface. In these instances, the 3D caption, when rendered, may not actually appear to contact or rest against the reference surface, but rather may appear to be hovering above or extending away from the reference surface at the predefined distance.
At operation 808, the tracking system 604 tracks the 3D caption in 6DoF at the position in the 3D space via the first tracking sub-system 604A, or a combination of multiple tracking sub-systems (e.g., the first tracking sub-system 604A and the second tracking sub-system 604B), based on the identified set of tracking indicia. When tracking the virtual object in 6DoF, a user viewing the object on the client device 102 can turn or move in any direction without disrupting tracking of the object. For example, the tracking system 604 may track the position of the 3D caption based on a combination of an NFT system and a gyroscopic tracking system.
At operation 810, the disruption detection component 606 detects an interruption of a tracking indicia from among the tracking indicia tracked by the tracking sub-systems (e.g., the first tracking sub-system 604A). For example, the first tracking sub-system 604A may include a NFT system configured to rely on tracking indicia that include features of an environment or active light sources in proximity to the 3D caption within the environment (e.g., the ground's plane, or the horizon). The NFT system of the first tracking sub-system 604A may therefore rely on the positions of three or more known features in the environment to determine the position of the 3D caption relative to the client device 102 in the three-dimensional space. Should any one or more of the tracking indicia tracked by the first tracking sub-system 604A become obstructed or unavailable, the tracking of the virtual object in the 3D space would become disrupted.
At operation 812 in response to the disruption detection component 606 detecting the disruption of the one or more tracking indicia, the tracking system 604 transitions to one or more other tracking sub-systems (e.g., the second tracking sub-system 604B and/or the third tracking sub-system 604C) to maintain tracking of the 3D caption relative to the client device 102 in the 3D space. In doing so, the tracking system 604 may transition from 6DoF to 3DoF, wherein 3DoF measures pitch, roll, and yaw, but does not measure translations. As the tracking indicia again become available, the tracking system 604 may transition from 3DoF back to 6DoF. For example, when the NFT system becomes unavailable, the tracking system 604 may utilize the last tracking indicia gathered and tracked by the NFT system throughout the subsequent 3DoF experience.
As shown in FIG. 9, the method 700 may, in some embodiments, include operations 902 and 904. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 9, the operations 902 and 904 may be performed during the display of the preview interface (e.g., prior to operation 714). In other embodiments, the operations 902 and 904 may be performed during display of the editing interface (e.g., subsequent to operation 704).
At operation 902, the 3D caption system 210 receives a fourth input comprising an edit to the presentation of the 3D caption. The edit may, for example, include a change to a scale, orientation, a position, font, color, or the substance of the 3D caption such as an addition of one or more text characters or a deletion of one or more text characters. The fourth input may include one of many types of input such as keyboard input, motion-based input, or touchscreen gestures. For example, the user may use a pinch gesture to change the scale of the 3D caption. As another example, the user may use a two-finger rotation gesture to change the orientation of the 3D caption. A change to the substance of the 3D caption may include a removal or addition of one or more text characters to the 3D caption using the keyboard.
At operation 904, the 3D caption system 210 updates the presentation of the 3D caption based on the fourth input. The updating of the presentation of the 3D caption may, for example, include changing a scale, orientation, a position, font, or color, adding one or more text characters, removing one or more text characters, or otherwise changing the substance of the 3D caption in accordance with the user edit.
FIG. 10 is an interface diagram that illustrates a user interface 1000 provided by the messaging system 100, according to some embodiments. User interface 1000 includes a lens carousel from which a user may initiate functionality of the 3D caption system 210 through selection of icon 1002. As shown, the lens carousel is overlaid upon a 3D space captured within a camera feed produced by a camera of a computing device (e.g., a client device 102).
Consistent with some embodiments, upon receiving a user selection of the icon 1002, a user is presented with an editing interface configured for creating and editing a 3D caption. For example, upon receiving a user selection of the icon 1102, the 3D caption system 210 may cause display of a user interface 1100 illustrated in FIG. 11. As shown in FIG. 11, the user interface 1100 includes a keyboard and a blinking cursor overlaid upon the 3D space captured within the camera feed. The user may use the keyboard to input one or more text characters that provide a basis for a 3D caption to be rendered within the 3D space. The user interface 1100 is an example of the editing interface 212.
As shown in FIG. 12, upon receiving input from the user (e.g., entered via the keyboard), the user interface 1100 is updated to present a representation of the input text (“Typing on the screen”). Within the user interface 1100, a 2D representation of the user input is rendered at the foreground of the camera feed of the client device 102. In essence, the 2D representation of the user input is a 2D representation of a 3D caption. In other words, the 2D representation of the user input is a preview of the 3D caption.
Consistent with some embodiments, a user of the client device 102 may access a preview interface (e.g., preview interface 214) that includes a preview of the 3D caption by providing an input such as changing an orientation of the client device 102 (e.g., changing the orientation of the camera from pointing upward to pointing downward) or by selecting an interface element (e.g., a button) presented within the preview interface 214.
FIG. 13 illustrates an interface 1300 that includes a preview of a 3D caption generated based on user input (e.g., user input provided via the interface 1100). The interface 1300 is an example of the preview interface 214. As noted above, the user may access the interface 1300 by providing an input such as a change in orientation. As shown in FIG. 13, upon detecting a reference surface (e.g., the ground) in the 3D space captured within the camera feed (e.g., based on a change of orientation of the computing device), a 3D caption based on the user's authored text is rendered within the 3D space captured within the camera feed. As shown, the 3D text object is rendered with respect to a reference surface in the 3D space. That is, the 3D text object, as rendered, is oriented within the 3D space at a position relative to the reference surface (e.g., the ground). Rendering the 3D object in this manner makes it appear attached to a real-world surface captured within the camera feed.
As shown in FIG. 14, the interface 1300 allows a user to edit (e.g., using a keyboard) the 3D caption while it is rendered within the 3D space captured within the camera feed. For example, as shown, the user has edited the 3D caption by deleting multiple characters.
FIG. 15A illustrates an interface 1500, which is an example of the editing interface 212, that includes a keyboard and a 2D representation of user input entered via the keyboard. In this example, the user input comprises multiple emojis (e.g., a small digital image or icon used to express an idea, emotion, etc., in electronic communication). Initially, as shown in FIG. 15A, a 2D representation of the emojis are presented as an overlay at the foreground of a camera feed of the client device 102.
FIG. 15B illustrates an interface 1550 comprising a view of a 3D caption generated based on the user input discussed above in reference to FIG. 15A. The interface 1550 is an example of the preview interface 214. The user may access the interface 1550 from the interface 1500 by providing appropriate input such as a change in orientation of the client device 102. Within the interface 1550, the 3D caption is rendered with respect to a detected reference surface (e.g., a table top).
FIGS. 16A-16C illustrate an interface 1600, which is an example of the preview interface 214. As shown in FIGS. 16A-16C, as a user is editing a 3D caption while accessing the preview interface 214, the user may move the computing device away from the caption and the 3D caption system 210 is able to track the movement and force the 3D caption to follow within the 3D space captured within the camera feed of the computing device. For example, the 3D caption system 210 may detect movement of the client device that causes a second 3D space to be captured in the camera feed and animate the 3D caption moving from the first 3D space to the second 3D space during the movement of the client device. In this manner, the 3D caption system 210 ensures that, while editing, the 3D caption remains visible to the user until they commit a final version of the 3D caption. As shown, moving the 3D caption may be rendered with a lower opacity than remaining stationary.
FIGS. 17A-17D are interface diagrams that illustrate an interface 1700, which is an example of a preview interface 214. As shown in FIG. 17A, a 3D caption 1702 is rendered within a 3D space at a first position; the 3D caption 1702 is rendered such that it appears attached to a reference surface (e.g., the ground). As shown in FIG. 17B, through appropriate interaction with the 3D caption 1702 (e.g., a select and drag gesture), the user may move the 3D caption 1702 such that it is rendered at a second position within the 3D space.
As shown in FIGS. 17C and 17D, a user may change a scale and rotation of the 3D caption 1702 through appropriate interaction with the 3D caption 1702. For example, the user can perform a pinch and rotate gesture with two fingers on an input touchscreen display on which the camera feed is displayed to scale and rotate the 3D caption 1702 on the reference surface without affecting a layout of the 3D caption 1702.
Once the user is satisfied with the placement and look of a 3D caption, the user may create a message that includes the 3D caption and one or more images from the camera feed. For example, the user may use the client device 102 to record a video in which the 3D caption is rendered such that it appears attached to a surface in the video.
As shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B, as part of creating the message, the user may be presented with a menu or other interface element that allows the user to select and apply one or more filters to apply to images of the camera feed along with the 3D caption rendered in the 3D space captured within the camera view.
FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating an example software architecture 1906, which may be used in conjunction with various hardware architectures herein described. FIG. 19 is a non-limiting example of a software architecture and it will be appreciated that many other architectures may be implemented to facilitate the functionality described herein. The software architecture 1906 may execute on hardware such as machine 2000 of FIG. 20 that includes, among other things, processors 2004, memory 2014, and input/output (I/O) components 2018. A representative hardware layer 1952 is illustrated and can represent, for example, the machine 2000 of FIG. 20. The representative hardware layer 1952 includes a processing unit 1954 having associated executable instructions 1904. Executable instructions 1904 represent the executable instructions of the software architecture 1906, including implementation of the methods, components, and so forth described herein. The hardware layer 1952 also includes memory and/or storage modules memory/storage 1956, which also have executable instructions 1904. The hardware layer 1952 may also comprise other hardware 1958.
In the example architecture of FIG. 19, the software architecture 1906 may be conceptualized as a stack of layers where each layer provides particular functionality. For example, the software architecture 1906 may include layers such as an operating system 1902, libraries 1920, applications 1916, frameworks/middleware 1918, and a presentation layer 1914. Operationally, the applications 1916 and/or other components within the layers may invoke API calls 1908 through the software stack and receive a response as in messages 1919 to the API calls 1908. The layers illustrated are representative in nature and not all software architectures have all layers. For example, some mobile or special purpose operating systems may not provide a frameworks/middleware 1918, while others may provide such a layer. Other software architectures may include additional or different layers.
The operating system 1902 may manage hardware resources and provide common services. The operating system 1902 may include, for example, a kernel 1922, services 1924, and drivers 1926. The kernel 1922 may act as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the other software layers. For example, the kernel 1922 may be responsible for memory management, processor management (e.g., scheduling), component management, networking, security settings, and so on. The services 1924 may provide other common services for the other software layers. The drivers 1926 are responsible for controlling or interfacing with the underlying hardware. For instance, the drivers 1926 include display drivers, camera drivers, Bluetooth® drivers, flash memory drivers, serial communication drivers (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB) drivers), Wi-Fi® drivers, audio drivers, power management drivers, and so forth depending on the hardware configuration.
The libraries 1920 provide a common infrastructure that is used by the applications 1916 and/or other components and/or layers. The libraries 1920 provide functionality that allows other software components to perform tasks in an easier fashion than to interface directly with the underlying operating system 1902 functionality (e.g., kernel 1922, services 1924 and/or drivers 1926). The libraries 1920 may include system libraries 1944 (e.g., C standard library) that may provide functions such as memory allocation functions, string manipulation functions, mathematical functions, and the like. In addition, the libraries 1920 may include API libraries 1946 such as media libraries (e.g., libraries to support presentation and manipulation of various media format such as MPREG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG), graphics libraries (e.g., an OpenGL framework that may be used to render 2D and 3D in a graphic content on a display), database libraries (e.g., SQLite that may provide various relational database functions), web libraries (e.g., WebKit that may provide web browsing functionality), and the like. The libraries 1920 may also include a wide variety of other libraries 1948 to provide many other APIs to the applications 1916 and other software components/modules.
The frameworks/middleware 1918 (also sometimes referred to as middleware) provide a higher-level common infrastructure that may be used by the applications 1916 and/or other software components/modules. For example, the frameworks/middleware 1918 may provide various graphic user interface (GUI) functions, high-level resource management, high-level location services, and so forth. The frameworks/middleware 1918 may provide a broad spectrum of other APIs that may be utilized by the applications 1916 and/or other software components/modules, some of which may be specific to a particular operating system 1902 or platform.
The applications 1916 include built-in applications 1938 and/or third-party applications 1940. Examples of representative built-in applications 1938 may include, but are not limited to, a contacts application, a browser application, a book reader application, a location application, a media application, a messaging application, and/or a game application. Third-party applications 1940 may include an application developed using the ANDROID™ or IOS™ software development kit (SDK) by an entity other than the vendor of the particular platform, and may be mobile software running on a mobile operating system such as IOS™, ANDROID™, WINDOWS® Phone, or other mobile operating systems. The third-party applications 1940 may invoke the API calls 1908 provided by the mobile operating system (such as operating system 1902) to facilitate functionality described herein.
The applications 1916 may use built-in operating system functions (e.g., kernel 1922, services 1924, and/or drivers 1926), libraries 1920, and frameworks/middleware 1918 to create user interfaces to interact with users of the system. Alternatively, or additionally, in some systems interactions with a user may occur through a presentation layer, such as presentation layer 1914. In these systems, the application/component “logic” can be separated from the aspects of the application/component that interact with a user.
FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine 2000, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 20 shows a diagrammatic representation of the machine 2000 in the example form of a computer system, within which instructions 2010 (e.g., software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code) for causing the machine 2000 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein may be executed. As such, the instructions 2010 may be used to implement modules or components described herein. The instructions 2010 transform the general, non-programmed machine 2000 into a particular machine 2000 programmed to carry out the described and illustrated functions in the manner described. In alternative embodiments, the machine 2000 operates as a standalone device or may be coupled (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 2000 may operate in the capacity of a server machine or a client machine in a server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. The machine 2000 may comprise, but not be limited to, a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a netbook, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), an entertainment media system, a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a mobile device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch), a smart home device (e.g., a smart appliance), other smart devices, a web appliance, a network router, a network switch, a network bridge, or any machine capable of executing the instructions 2010, sequentially or otherwise, that specify actions to be taken by machine 2000. Further, while only a single machine 2000 is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include a collection of machines that individually or jointly execute the instructions 2010 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
The machine 2000 may include processors 2004, memory memory/storage 2006, and I/O components 2018, which may be configured to communicate with each other such as via a bus 2002. In an example embodiment, the processors 2004 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 2008 and a processor 2012 that may execute the instructions 2010. The term “processor” is intended to include multi-core processors 2004 that may comprise two or more independent processors (sometimes referred to as “cores”) that may execute instructions 2010 contemporaneously. Although FIG. 20 shows multiple processors 2004, the machine 2000 may include a single processor with a single core, a single processor with multiple cores (e.g., a multi-core processor), multiple processors with a single core, multiple processors with multiple cores, or any combination thereof.
The memory/storage 2006 may include a memory 2014, such as a main memory, or other memory storage, and a storage unit 2016, both accessible to the processors 2004 such as via the bus 2002. The storage unit 2016 and memory 2014 store the instructions 2010 embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 2010 may also reside, completely or partially, within the memory 2014, within the storage unit 2016, within at least one of the processors 2004 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), or any suitable combination thereof, during execution thereof by the machine 2000. Accordingly, the memory 2014, the storage unit 2016, and the memory of processors 2004 are examples of machine-readable media.
The I/O components 2018 may include a wide variety of components to receive input, provide output, produce output, transmit information, exchange information, capture measurements, and so on. The specific I/O components 2018 that are included in a particular machine 2000 will depend on the type of machine. For example, portable machines such as mobile phones will likely include a touch input device or other such input mechanisms, while a headless server machine will likely not include such a touch input device. It will be appreciated that the I/O components 2018 may include many other components that are not shown in FIG. 20. The I/O components 2018 are grouped according to functionality merely for simplifying the following discussion and the grouping is in no way limiting. In various example embodiments, the I/O components 2018 may include output components 2026 and input components 2028. The output components 2026 may include visual components (e.g., a display such as a plasma display panel (PDP), a light emitting diode (LED) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a projector, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), acoustic components (e.g., speakers), haptic components (e.g., a vibratory motor, resistance mechanisms), other signal generators, and so forth. The input components 2028 may include alphanumeric input components (e.g., a keyboard, a touch screen configured to receive alphanumeric input, a photo-optical keyboard, or other alphanumeric input components), point based input components (e.g., a mouse, a touchpad, a trackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or other pointing instrument), tactile input components (e.g., a physical button, a touch screen that provides location and/or force of touches or touch gestures, or other tactile input components), audio input components (e.g., a microphone), and the like.
In further example embodiments, the I/O components 2018 may include biometric components 2030, motion components 2034, environmental components 2036, or position components 2038 among a wide array of other components. For example, the biometric components 2030 may include components to detect expressions (e.g., hand expressions, facial expressions, vocal expressions, body gestures, or eye tracking), measure biosignals (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, perspiration, or brain waves), identify a person (e.g., voice identification, retinal identification, facial identification, fingerprint identification, or electroencephalogram based identification), and the like. The motion components 2034 may include acceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometer), gravitation sensor components, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscope), and so forth. The environmental components 2036 may include, for example, illumination sensor components (e.g., photometer), temperature sensor components (e.g., one or more thermometer that detect ambient temperature), humidity sensor components, pressure sensor components (e.g., barometer), acoustic sensor components (e.g., one or more microphones that detect background noise), proximity sensor components (e.g., infrared sensors that detect nearby objects), gas sensors (e.g., gas detection sensors to detection concentrations of hazardous gases for safety or to measure pollutants in the atmosphere), or other components that may provide indications, measurements, or signals corresponding to a surrounding physical environment. The position components 2038 may include location sensor components (e.g., a GPS receiver component), altitude sensor components (e.g., altimeters or barometers that detect air pressure from which altitude may be derived), orientation sensor components (e.g., magnetometers), and the like.
Communication may be implemented using a wide variety of technologies. The I/O components 2018 may include communication components 2040 operable to couple the machine 2000 to a network 2032 or devices 2020 via coupling 2024 and coupling 2022, respectively. For example, the communication components 2040 may include a network interface component or other suitable device to interface with the network 2032. In further examples, communication components 2040 may include wired communication components, wireless communication components, cellular communication components, Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components to provide communication via other modalities. The devices 2020 may be another machine or any of a wide variety of peripheral devices (e.g., a peripheral device coupled via a USB).
Moreover, the communication components 2040 may detect identifiers or include components operable to detect identifiers. For example, the communication components 2040 may include Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag reader components, NFC smart tag detection components, optical reader components (e.g., an optical sensor to detect one-dimensional bar codes such as Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code, multi-dimensional bar codes such as Quick Response (QR) code, Aztec code, Data Matrix, Dataglyph, MaxiCode, PDF417, Ultra Code, UCC RSS-2D bar code, and other optical codes), or acoustic detection components (e.g., microphones to identify tagged audio signals). In addition, a variety of information may be derived via the communication components 2040, such as, location via Internet Protocol (IP) geo-location, location via Wi-Fi® signal triangulation, location via detecting a NFC beacon signal that may indicate a particular location, and so forth.
Glossary
“CARRIER SIGNAL” in this context refers to any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine, and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible medium to facilitate communication of such instructions. Instructions may be transmitted or received over the network using a transmission medium via a network interface device and using any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols.
“CLIENT DEVICE” in this context refers to any machine that interfaces to a communications network to obtain resources from one or more server systems or other client devices. A client device may be, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, desktop computer, laptop, PDAs, smart phones, tablets, ultra books, netbooks, laptops, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, game consoles, set-top boxes, or any other communication device that a user may use to access a network.
“COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK” in this context refers to one or more portions of a network that may be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), the Internet, a portion of the Internet, a portion of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a plain old telephone service (POTS) network, a cellular telephone network, a wireless network, a Wi-Fi® network, another type of network, or a combination of two or more such networks. For example, a network or a portion of a network may include a wireless or cellular network and the coupling may be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) connection, a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) connection, or other type of cellular or wireless coupling. In this example, the coupling may implement any of a variety of types of data transfer technology, such as Single Carrier Radio Transmission Technology (1×RTT), Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology, third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) including 3G, fourth generation wireless (4G) networks, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, others defined by various standard setting organizations, other long range protocols, or other data transfer technology.
“EPHEMERAL MESSAGE” in this context refers to a message that is accessible for a time-limited duration. An ephemeral message may be a text, an image, a video, and the like. The access time for the ephemeral message may be set by the message sender. Alternatively, the access time may be a default setting or a setting specified by the recipient. Regardless of the setting technique, the message is transitory.
“MACHINE-READABLE MEDIUM” in this context refers to a component, device or other tangible media able to store instructions and data temporarily or permanently and may include, but is not be limited to, random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), buffer memory, flash memory, optical media, magnetic media, cache memory, other types of storage (e.g., Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and/or any suitable combination thereof. The term “machine-readable medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, or associated caches and servers) able to store instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shall also be taken to include any medium, or combination of multiple media, that is capable of storing instructions (e.g., code) for execution by a machine, such that the instructions, when executed by one or more processors of the machine, cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies described herein. Accordingly, a “machine-readable medium” refers to a single storage apparatus or device, as well as “cloud-based” storage systems or storage networks that include multiple storage apparatus or devices. The term “machine-readable medium” excludes signals per se.
“COMPONENT” in this context refers to a device, physical entity, or logic having boundaries defined by function or subroutine calls, branch points, APIs, or other technologies that provide for the partitioning or modularization of particular processing or control functions. Components may be combined via their interfaces with other components to carry out a machine process. A component may be a packaged functional hardware unit designed for use with other components and a part of a program that usually performs a particular function of related functions. Components may constitute either software components (e.g., code embodied on a machine-readable medium) or hardware components.
A “hardware component” is a tangible unit capable of performing certain operations and may be configured or arranged in a certain physical manner. In various example embodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone computer system, a client computer system, or a server computer system) or one or more hardware components of a computer system (e.g., a processor or a group of processors) may be configured by software (e.g., an application or application portion) as a hardware component that operates to perform certain operations as described herein. A hardware component may also be implemented mechanically, electronically, or any suitable combination thereof. For example, a hardware component may include dedicated circuitry or logic that is permanently configured to perform certain operations. A hardware component may be a special-purpose processor, such as a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). A hardware component may also include programmable logic or circuitry that is temporarily configured by software to perform certain operations. For example, a hardware component may include software executed by a general-purpose processor or other programmable processor.
Once configured by such software, hardware components become specific machines (or specific components of a machine) uniquely tailored to perform the configured functions and are no longer general-purpose processors. It will be appreciated that the decision to implement a hardware component mechanically, in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or in temporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) may be driven by cost and time considerations. Accordingly, the phrase “hardware component” (or “hardware-implemented component”) should be understood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner or to perform certain operations described herein.
Considering embodiments in which hardware components are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed), each of the hardware components need not be configured or instantiated at any one instance in time. For example, where a hardware component comprises a general-purpose processor configured by software to become a special-purpose processor, the general-purpose processor may be configured as respectively different special-purpose processors (e.g., comprising different hardware components) at different times. Software accordingly configures a particular processor or processors, for example, to constitute a particular hardware component at one instance of time and to constitute a different hardware component at a different instance of time.
Hardware components can provide information to, and receive information from, other hardware components. Accordingly, the described hardware components may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Where multiple hardware components exist contemporaneously, communications may be achieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuits and buses) between or among two or more of the hardware components. In embodiments in which multiple hardware components are configured or instantiated at different times, communications between such hardware components may be achieved, for example, through the storage and retrieval of information in memory structures to which the multiple hardware components have access. For example, one hardware component may perform an operation and store the output of that operation in a memory device to which it is communicatively coupled. A further hardware component may then, at a later time, access the memory device to retrieve and process the stored output. Hardware components may also initiate communications with input or output devices, and can operate on a resource (e.g., a collection of information).
The various operations of example methods described herein may be performed, at least partially, by one or more processors that are temporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured to perform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanently configured, such processors may constitute processor-implemented components that operate to perform one or more operations or functions described herein. As used herein, “processor-implemented component” refers to a hardware component implemented using one or more processors. Similarly, the methods described herein may be at least partially processor-implemented, with a particular processor or processors being an example of hardware. For example, at least some of the operations of a method may be performed by one or more processors or processor-implemented components. Moreover, the one or more processors may also operate to support performance of the relevant operations in a “cloud computing” environment or as a “software as a service” (SaaS). For example, at least some of the operations may be performed by a group of computers (as examples of machines including processors), with these operations being accessible via a network (e.g., the Internet) and via one or more appropriate interfaces (e.g., an API). The performance of certain of the operations may be distributed among the processors, not only residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number of machines. In some example embodiments, the processors or processor-implemented components may be located in a single geographic location (e.g., within a home environment, an office environment, or a server farm). In other example embodiments, the processors or processor-implemented components may be distributed across a number of geographic locations.
“PROCESSOR” in this context refers to any circuit or virtual circuit (a physical circuit emulated by logic executing on an actual processor) that manipulates data values according to control signals (e.g., “commands”, “op codes”, “machine code”, etc.) and which produces corresponding output signals that are applied to operate a machine. A processor may, for example, be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an ASIC, a Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) or any combination thereof. A processor may further be a multi-core processor having two or more independent processors (sometimes referred to as “cores”) that may execute instructions contemporaneously.
“TIMESTAMP” in this context refers to a sequence of characters or encoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, for example giving a date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a small fraction of a second.
