An app for the perfect selfie

Aug. 2, 2017. The full article by Matthew Grant. Waterloo News (CA)

Computer scientists, led by Dan Vogel, at the University of Waterloo have developed a smartphone app that helps people learn the art of taking great selfies.

Inside the app is an algorithm that directs the user where to position the camera allowing them to take the best shot possible.

Vogel and Qifan Li, a former Master’s student at Waterloo, bought 3D digital scans of “average” looking people. They took hundreds of “virtual selfies” by writing code to control a virtual smartphone camera and computer-generated lighting which allowed them to explore different composition principles, including lighting direction, face position and face size.