Author: Jackson Jiang

The latest version (6.11.0) of HMS Core Scan Kit is now available, and this article aims to share some of its exciting new features with you:

• The kit adds the decode API that is available to both camera-based and image-based barcode scanning scenarios.

This API supports image data in NV21 format (which is output by your custom camera API) and multi-barcode recognition. Compared with decodeWithBitmap, an API released in an earlier version that supports only the bitmap format, the decode API saves time converting the image format and delivers a faster barcode scanning process in the camera-based mode.

Changing an image/video background has always been a hassle, whereby the most tricky part is extracting the element other than the background.

Traditionally, it requires us to use a PC image-editing program that allows us to select the element, add a mask, replace the canvas, and more. If the element has an extremely uneven border, then the whole process can be very time-consuming.

Influencers have become increasingly important as more and more consumers choose to purchase items online — whether on Amazon, Taobao, or one of the many other prominent e-commerce platforms. Brands and merchants have spent a lot of money finding influencers to promote their products through live streams and consumer interactions, and many purchases are made on the recommendation of a trusted influencer.

However, employing a public-facing influencer can be costly and risky. Many brands and merchants have opted instead to host live streams with their own virtual characters. This gives them more freedom to showcase their products and widens the pool of potential on-camera talent. For consumers, virtual characters can add fun and whimsy to the shopping experience.

I recently came across an article saying that barcodes and barcode readers have become a mainstay of today's economies and our lives in general since they were introduced in the 1970s.

So, I decided to test how true this is by seeing how often I come across barcode readers on a typical day of mine. And — surprise surprise — they turned out to be more important than I thought.

3D Audio Overview

An immersive experience is much talked about in the current mobile app world, given how it evokes emotions from users to merge the virtual world with reality.

3D audio is a fantastic gimmick that is capable of delivering such an experience. This tech provides listeners with an audio experience that mimics how they hear sounds in real life, mostly by using the binaural sound systems to capture, process, and playback audio waves. 3D audio allows the listener to know where audio sources are from, thereby delivering a richer experience.

Portrait Retouching Importance

Mobile phone camera technology is evolving—wide-angle lens and optical image stabilization to name but a few. Thanks to this, video recording and mobile image editing apps are emerging one after another, utilizing technology to foster greater creativity.

Among these apps, live-streaming apps are growing with great momentum, thanks to an explosive number of streamers and viewers.

Background

Many weeks ago, when I tried to exit a parking lot, I was—once again—battling with technology as I tried to pay the parking fee. I opened an app and used it to scan the QR payment code on the wall, but it just wouldn’t recognize the code because it was too far away. Thankfully, a parking lot attendant came out to help me complete the payment, sparing me from the embarrassment of the cars behind me beeping their horns in frustration. This made me want to create a QR code scanning app that could save me from such future pain.

The first demo app I created was, truth to be told, a failure. First, the distance between my phone and a QR code had to be within 30 cm, otherwise the app would fail to recognize the code. However, in most cases, this distance is not ideal for a parking lot.

What Is HDR and Why Does It Matter

Streaming technology has improved significantly, giving rise to higher and higher video resolutions from those at or below 480p (which are known as the standard definition or SD for short) to those at or above 720p (high definition, or HD for short).

The video resolution is vital for all apps. Research that I recently came across backs this up: 62% of people are more likely to negatively perceive a brand that provides a poor-quality video experience, while 57% of people are less likely to share a poor-quality video. With this in mind, it's no wonder that there are so many emerging solutions to enhance video resolution.

Why We Need DDGI

Of all the things that make a 3D game immersive, global illumination effects (including reflections, refractions, and shadows) are undoubtedly the jewel in the crown. Simply put, bad lighting can ruin an otherwise great game experience.

A technique for creating real-life lighting is known as dynamic diffuse global illumination (DDGI for short). This technique delivers real-time rendering for games, decorating game scenes with delicate and appealing visuals. In other words, DDGI brings out every color in a scene by dynamically changing the lighting, realizing the distinct relationship between objects and scene temperature, as well as enriching levels of representation for information in a scene.

Let's face it. Sometimes it can be difficult for our app users to find a specific app function when our apps are loaded with all kinds of functions. Many of us tend to write up a guide detailing each function found in the app, but — honestly speaking — users don't really have the time or patience to read through long guides, and not all guides are user-friendly, either. Sometimes it's faster to play about with a function than it is to look it up and learn about it. But that creates the possibility that users are not using the functions of our app to its full potential.

Luckily, making a screen recording is a great way of showing users how functions work, step by step.

In the mobile Internet era, people are increasingly using mobile apps for a variety of different purposes, such as buying products online, hailing taxis, and much more. When using such an app, a user usually needs to manually enter their address for package delivery or search for an appropriate pick-up and drop-off location when they hail a taxi, which can be inconvenient.

To improve user experience, many apps nowadays allow users to select a point on the map and then use the selected point as the location, for example, for package delivery or getting on or off a taxi. Each location has a longitude-latitude coordinate that pinpoints its position precisely on the map. However, longitude-latitude coordinates are simply a string of numbers and provide little information to the average user. It would therefore be useful if there was a tool which an app can use to convert longitude-latitude coordinates into human-readable addresses.

Nowadays, apps use device locations to provide a wide variety of services. You may want to see a user's location to show services around them, learn the habits of users in different areas, or perform location-based actions, like a ride-hailing app calculating travel distance and trip fare.

In order to protect user privacy, however, most apps request device location only when they run in the foreground. Once switched to the background, or even with the device screen turned off, apps are usually not allowed to request device location. As a result, they cannot record the GPS track of a device, which negatively affects the user experience of core functions of many apps, such as ride-hailing, trip-sharing, and exercise, all of which need to track location in real time.

Emojis are a must-have tool in today's online communications as they help add color to text-based chatting and allow users to better express the emotions behind their words. Since the number of preset emojis is always limited, many apps now allow users to create their own custom emojis to keep things fresh and exciting.

For example, in a social media app, users who do not want to show their faces when making video calls can use an animated character to protect their privacy, with their facial expressions applied to the character; in a live streaming or e-commerce app, virtual streamers with realistic facial expressions are much more likely to attract watchers; in a video or photo shooting app, users can control the facial expressions of an animated character when taking a selfie, and then share the selfie via social media; and in an educational app for kids, a cute animated character with detailed facial expressions will make online classes much more fun and engaging for students.

Identity verification is among the primary contributors to mobile app security. Considering that face data is unique for each person, it has been utilized to develop a major branch of identity verification: face recognition.

Face recognition has been widely applied in services we use every day, such as unlocking a mobile device, face-scan payment, access control, and more. Undoubtedly, face recognition delivers a streamlined verification process for the mentioned services. However, that is not to say that this kind of security is completely safe and secure. Face recognition can only detect faces, and is unable to tell whether they belong to a real person, making face recognition vulnerable to presentation attacks (PAs), including the print attack, replay attack, and mask attack.

It can be so frustrating to lose track of a workout because the fitness app has stopped running in the background. It happens when you turn off the screen or have another app in the front to listen to music or watch a video during the workout. Talk about all of your sweat and effort going to waste!

Fitness apps work by recognizing and displaying the user's workout status in real time, using the sensor on the phone or wearable device. They can obtain and display complete workout records to users only if they can keep running in the background. Since most users will turn off the screen, or use other apps during a workout, it has been a must-have feature for fitness apps to keep alive in the background. However, to save battery power, most phones will restrict or even forcibly close apps once they are running in the background, causing the workout data to be incomplete. When building your own fitness app, it's important to keep this limitation in mind.