The Technology Behind How SnapChat Filters Recognize and Manipulate Faces

Vox video contributor Joss Fong explains how the technology behind SnapChat filters is able to recognize and manipulate faces.

If you’ve been seeing selfies enhanced with dog noses and flower crowns lately, and you wondered where they all came from, the answer is Snapchat, the social network preferred by people born during or after the (sigh) 1990s. The mobile app allows people to look into a magic mirror of sorts by altering and enhancing their faces in real time with a different set of filters every day. In this video, we explain how the technology works.

Glen Tickle
Glen Tickle

Amelia's dad. Steph's husband. Writer, comedian, gentleman. Good at juggling, bad at chess.