Apple Wins Patent for 'Virtual Group Selfies'

Want to take a selfie with your friends, but your friends are all under stay-at-home orders? Apple filed a patent for software that would make that possible a long time before the pandemic, the Verge reports. The patent application for virtual group selfies, filed in 2018, was one of 57 new Apple patents granted last week, per Patently Apple. The application states that the process involves Apple users inviting others to take part in a group selfie before the software arranges their images into a group shot, which they would then be free to modify. The group selfie can be a " composition of still images, stored video images, or live streaming video images," according to the application.

While the software sounds perfectly suited for social distancing, it was apparently developed because people were finding it tricky to take group selfies. "While capturing an individual selfie can be accomplished easily since the only the users needs to be placed within the field of view of the image capturing device, capturing a group selfie can be much more difficult since the user must arrange the user and the user's friends within the field of view of the image capture device," the patent application states, per 9to5Mac. "Thus, an easier mechanism for capturing a group selfie would be advantageous." It's not clear when, how, or if Apple plans to use the software, the Verge notes. (More selfie stories.)