Prisma shifts focus to b2b with an API for AI-powered mobile effects

Initially, say Prisma's co-founders, they'll be offering an SDK for developers wanting to add effects like style transfer and selfie lenses to their own apps -- likely launching an API mid next week. The wave of augmented reality apps that are coming down the smartphone pipe, driven by more powerful hardware and active encouragement from mobile platforms, could also help generate demand for Prisma's effects, reckons Moiseenkov, as they can offer object tracking as well as face tracking via APIs or an SDK. "We want to explore the CV [computer vision] area and help companies also produce a greater user experience with AI -- helping people to communicate easier, to solve their tasks," adds Moiseenkov. The app achieved its effects not by applying filters to the photo but by utilizing neural networks and deep learning to process the original photo in the chosen style -- generating a new image that combined both input sources.