YouTube ‘stories’ feature lets creators swap out backgrounds without a green screen

Google AI can now easily replace the video background in YouTube stories on mobile, available in beta to a limited number of YouTube creators  

Video segmentation is a widely used technique that enables movie directors and video content creators to separate the foreground of a scene from the background, and treat them as two different visual layers. By modifying or replacing the background, creators can convey a particular mood, transport themselves to a fun location or enhance the impact of the message. However, this operation has traditionally been performed as a time-consuming manual process (e.g. an artist rotoscoping every frame) or requires a studio environment with a green screen for real-time background removal (a technique referred to as chroma keying). In order to enable users to create this effect live in the viewfinder, we designed a new technique that is suitable for mobile phones.

Today, we are excited to bring precise, real-time, on-device mobile video segmentation to the YouTube app by integrating this technology into stories. Currently in limited beta, stories is YouTube’s new lightweight video format, designed specifically for YouTube creators. Our new segmentation technology allows creators to replace and modify the background, effortlessly increasing videos’ production value without specialized equipment.

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