Google Blog: Five spooky filters to try this Halloween. “Think you know Halloween? 🎃 Google Arts & Culture is embracing spooky season with the release of our Spotlight on Halloween — a selection of the creepiest, most disturbing art exhibits created by our partners, ready to instill fear in even the bravest of souls. From terrifying filters to macabre artworks, here are some of the things you’ll be able to play around with.”
WIRED: How to Create an Augmented Reality Filter for TikTok. “From Paris to Dubai, I spoke with designers around the world about the process of creating AR effects for social media.”
KnowTechie: APPS5 best webcam face filter apps for streaming. “Webcam face filters apps are thriving, so here’s our detailed comparison of market-leading products with their benefits, drawbacks, and ready-made features.”
Associated Press: Germany wants ads, influencers to note use of beauty filters. “German state officials said Friday that they want advertisers and social media influencers to label any photos that have used so-called beauty filters. Critics argue that the filters, which offer easy ways to touch up images and remove supposed blemishes, promote unrealistic standards of beauty particularly among women and girls.”
MIT Technology Review: Social media filters are helping people explore their gender identity. “Oliver Haimson, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who studies transgender identity and experiences online, says that for trans, gender-nonconforming, or gender-curious folk, filters can be a way to play with gender expression without the investment and skill that makeup requires or the time, hormones, and luck it takes to grow facial hair. He explains that filters are an important and widely used tool for identity exploration.”
Axios: Scoop: Google moves to keep campaign messages out of spam. “Google has asked the Federal Election Commission to green light a program that could keep campaign emails from ending up in spam folders, according to a filing obtained by Axios.”
Google Blog: Augmented reality brings fine art to life for International Museum Day. “Have you ever dreamt of having your portrait taken by a world-famous artist? Or wished a painting would come to life before your eyes? This International Museum Day, we’re unveiling three new Art Filter options via the Google Arts & Culture app so that you can immerse yourself in iconic paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Grant Wood, and Fernando Botero.”
Distractify: Snapchat Geofilters Are Pretty Easy to Create for Any Event or Occasion. “Since it was first introduced, one of the main draws of Snapchat has been the wide array of filters that users can play with to change their appearance or even tag themselves at a certain location or event. Geofilters are only available at certain locations and can be used to share a snap about where a user is specifically. Now, Snapchat has made it possible for anyone to create one.”
Harvard Business Review: Research: How AR Filters Impact People’s Self-Image. “New research suggests that AR apps designed to let customers virtually try on makeup or other products can have a significant, negative impact on psychological wellbeing. Moreover, that impact can vary widely depending on the customer. While people with lower baseline levels of self-esteem may feel better about themselves after using an AR filter, those with higher pre-existing self-esteem are more likely to feel worse about themselves after using AR.”
Mashable: TikTok beauty filters can be super realistic—unless you’re a person of color . “When I first came across the Glow Look filter on TikTok, I dragged my self-absorbed ass into the video maker to try it on. I was expecting to be wowed by my own hotness, just like all the other girls on my For You Page. Instead, I tapped the filter on, and immediately guffawed. It looked ridiculous, to say the least. The enlarged, bright blue eyes, flushed cheeks, and noticeably thinner nose looked extremely out of place on my Vietnamese face.”
CNET: How to make your own AR face filter. “We’ve already spent years contorting our faces, surrounding them with butterflies or pinning stuff to our heads to find out which Disney villain best represents us. However, it wasn’t until I got my hands on the new iPad Pro and played around with the Face Paint feature in Procreate that I realized how easy it is to make your own face filter. So I made a video about it, which you can watch above.”
MakeUseOf: How to Use Zoom Video Filters. “Zoom has become a popular pick for video conferencing. It may be for meetings, webinars, classes, or even catching up with friends. However, if we’re honest, facing a screen full of poker-faced people can be pretty boring if not their still photos or their names. In this article, we guide you on how to use built-in and third-party Zoom filters that you can show off at your next Zoom meeting.”
Engadget: Google Arts & Culture app lets you turn yourself into a Van Gogh painting. “If you’ve ever wondered what your portrait would look like if Van Gogh or Frida Kahlo were to paint it, Google can help you find out. The company’s latest Arts & Culture app update is a set of augmented reality Art Filters you can apply to your face to transform yourself into a famous painting or try on a priceless historical artifact.”
Lifehacker: How to Find The Best ‘Which ____ Are You’ Instagram Filters “I’ve done the annoying work of tracking down some of the more popular Instagram filters to give you an easier way to create your own fun stories. To get to each filter, tap on the link to its creator on your mobile app, and then tap on the smiley face icon in the dead-center of their profile.”
TechCrunch: Snapchat Cameos edit your face into videos. “Snapchat is preparing to launch a big new feature that uses your selfies to replace the faces of people in videos you can then share. It’s essentially a simplified way to Deepfake you into GIFs. Snapchat Cameos are an alternative to Bitmoji for quickly conveying an emotion, reaction, or silly situation in Snapchat messages.”
The ResearchBuzz Firehose is regular RB content presented as individual posts.
For digest-type posts a couple of times a day, please visit ResearchBuzz.
Want to know how to best use the Firehose for content discovery?
Check out this handy article.