On Sept. 15, 2015, Snapchat users were introduced to Snapchat face filters. This new concept took the world by storm and added a lot more fun and silliness to the world of social media. The addition of aesthetic flower clowns to selfies, turning faces into puppies or even freakier additions of changing faces into zombies, users quickly became captivated with the update. Snapchat is constantly adding new and different filters to the app, keeping users captivated and continuing to enjoy the app.
“My favorite filter that Snapchat has ever had was the Harry Potter filter where it turned you into Harry Potter and it rained letters from Hogwarts,” Joe Berardi, sophomore at Cabrini University, said. “My friend and I had a really fun time making funny videos with that filter.”
Snapchat filters can allow users to be more creative and enjoy the app more.
“I like Snapchat filters because I am able to be more creative when taking Snapchats,” Melanie Reeves, sophomore at Cabrini, said. “It is a lot more fun to have cute and funny filters when taking pictures with friends.”
Every once in a while the filters will change and which allows users to constantly be engaged in the app.
“I think Snapchat filters give people different ways to express themselves,” Taylor McCologan, sophomore at Cabrini, said. “The filters give off a comedic vibe and let’s people have more fun when sending Snapchats to each other.”
As fun as the face morphing filters may be, there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to allow this feature to exist. The technology first came from a Ukrainian startup called Looksery that Snapchat bought for $150 million. The app uses computer vision which is the same thing that allows you to deposit checks with your phone, how other applications can determine who’s face belongs to who and even how self driving cars do not hit things.
To make using an active shape model, a model of a face that has manually marked the faces of hundreds of sample images. The algorithm takes an average face from the data and aligns it from the image with your phone’s camera. Dots are traced around your face and adjusted to match your facial features. Those dots create coordinates around your face which then create a mesh which is a 3-D mask that moves along with your face which allows the filters to change your face and move with you.
To go along with all the fun, there are of course conspiracies theories to add to the sketchiness of the face scannings. The theory is that every time your face gets scanned by Snapchat, it is actually going to the F.B.I. The F.B.I already has facial recognition for anyone who has ever committed a crime so they can easily track them down if they needed to. Since the F.B.I needed a way to scan the faces of everyone that is when they turned to Snapchat. This is only a theory and is not facts but it has left Snapchat users curious and concerned causing some users to even delete the app.
