Childish Gambino turns into Playmoji for Pixel phones

You might have seen these AR stickers of Stranger Things or Star Wars before on Pixel phones. You might have even seen our own post about this on our Instagram. But now these AR stickers, or Playmoji as Google calls them, gains another prominent star: musician Childish Gambino. You can now drop him into your life via these stickers and watch him dance to three of his hits: “Redbone,” “Summertime Magic,” and “This is America.” Google worked with Donald Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) and his choreographer to make sure his dance moves are as true to life as possible. On top of that, you can even use his Playmoji in selfie mode and have him respond to different facial expressions.

Google’s promoting this new Playmoji with the #pixeldanceoff hashtag. You won’t win any prizes but if you want to show off your dance moves alongside AR version of Childish Gambino, then go right ahead.

Samsung updates AR Emoji to add more customization options

When Samsung first unveiled the AR Emoji, it had some kinks it had to work out. Now, Samsung is hoping to give the Galaxy S9 users a better experience and have these AR Emojis look more like their users by introducing customization options. A new My Emoji Editor feature will let you fine-tune standout characteristics like eyes, lips, nose, and cheeks, among others. You can even adjust face shape to mirror your own. Face-tracking has been updated here, too. Samsung says there’s been a 65 percent increase in “landmark detector” points, which means it can track things like eye and mouth movement more precisely. There’s also a frame rate boost so movements look smoother and more natural. Samsung will be releasing this update to all its markets soon.

Source: SamMobile

Samsung releases ‘Incredibles 2’ AR Emojis

With Samsung’s partnership with Disney, it’s not surprising that the Incredibles 2 are getting the AR Emoji treatment. All five members of the superhero family as well as Frozone are available for you to play around with. AR Emoji has been likened to Apple’s Animojis. These emojis use your facial expressions to animate the characters you see on the screen. This latest pack is already available in the camera’s AR Emoji mode. Just a reminder that only the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus have access to this feature.

Source: Android Authority

Samsung patent suggests AR Emojis might be used for video chats

While Samsung’s AR Emojis have been said to be the company’s response to Apple’s Animoji, a patent Samsung filed back in 2013 and was granted last week suggests there might be another reason why these exist. Samsung foresaw that bandwidth might be an issue when it comes to video chats or live videos and so the company applied for a patent to use 3D models of people’s faces for video chats. As the patent states, “A need exists for a visual communication system capable of displaying the user’s actual likeness, facial expressions, and motion in real time, while reducing bandwidth.” And since AR Emojis are more or less based on a photo of yourself, who knows if Samsung might be interested in letting people use these avatars for video chats.

Source: The Verge