When you see a movie poster at the theatre, you probably don’t give it much thought. Soon, however, you might actually be able to interact with characters from whatever the poster is promoting, thanks to a Facebook augmented reality toolkit.
Currently only available in a closed beta, the toolkit enables users of Facebook’s camera to engage with posters, signs and logos in AR through the Facebook camera’s “target tracking.”
As an example, films Ready Player One and A Wrinkle in Time are already using Facebook’s target tracking tech, with an immersive experience appearing as an overlay in the Facebook camera when scanned. Alternatively, effects can activated by scanning QR codes.
The toolkit, which will release to all developers later this spring, can run on iOS phones iPhone 5s or later and Android devices released in 2012 and later.
Facebook previously announced its commitment to AR at its F8 conference last year, an effort that some experts think will make it the leader in the mobile AR space alongside Apple, which is also doing extensive work in this space with ARKit.
