A Snapchat patent application shows off one idea for displaying smoother augmented reality images while using less processing power: build a giant image database, detect where a user is looking, and insert digital objects that you’ve pre-placed to look good. The application, published yesterday but filed in late 2015, could apply to either a phone-based app or to augmented reality glasses. In the process it covers, Snapchat would first pinpoint a user’s approximate location with GPS or a similar system. Then, it would match images from the user’s camera against a set of what the filing calls “structure facade data.”
If you’re in a park, for example, Snapchat could ask you to hold up your phone and capture pictures of where you are. Since...
