Speed Philippines – July 2019

JULY 2019

ASK THE EDITOR

WHAT’S THIS TOF

THING DOING ON

MY PHONE?

Hi, Speed! I recently
upgraded to a
phone with a time-
of-flight (ToF)
camera. I honestly
don’t know what this
is. How is it different
from the other
cameras on my
phone? Hope you
can explain it to me
in simple terms.

CLUELESS CARLA

Dear Clueless Carla,

Be clueless no
more. A time-of-
flight camera is like
a depth sensor.
It uses infrared
light to determine
depth information.
The sensor emits
a light signal,

which hits the subject and returns

to the sensor. The time it takes

to bounce back is then

measured and provides depth-

mapping capabilities.

A ToF camera on your phone has

two main functions: photography

and augmented reality (AR). Say

you’re taking a picture of a friend

in a busy tourist attraction. The ToF

camera will be able to recognize

your subject, and with the help of

some software magic will produce

a brilliant-looking bokeh effect.

ToF can also assist in low-light

situations by helping your

phone’s camera focus even in

pitch black environments.

Since a time-of-flight camera

gives the phone’s software more

understanding of surfaces, data

from the sensor can also help with

3D imaging and improving

AR experiences.

Hope that helps, Carla!

Manage your

Facebook

time

Decision paralysis

Whenever I turn on

the TV and scroll

through Netflix,

I almost always end

up not watching

anything. There’s

just too much

content that it’s

so hard to choose

which one to watch.

Any tips? Please!?

ISAIAH D.C.

Ooh, we know your dilemma all too well.

That’s why we’ve turned to flickmetrix.com for

help. Flickmetrix collects ratings on movies

from Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Letterboxd, and

Metacritic, and puts them into one big rating.

You can select whether you want to search on

Netflix or Amazon Prime, set which era of film

you want to search for, and the average rating

you want to see. You can also filter via genre

and number of critic reviews.

You’re welcome ;)

Is there a way to know how long

I’ve been (mindlessly) scrolling

through my Facebook news feed?

RYE

Hi, Rye!

Yes, you can track how much time

you spend on Facebook using your

phone. On the app, go to Settings

& Privacy and look for “Your Time

on Facebook.” A bar graph will show

you your usage time for the week,

displayed by hours and minutes

per day, and the average amount

of time you spent each day. Do note,

however, that this doesn’t factor

in desktop or laptop usage.

You can also do this on Instagram.

Go to your account, click on the

three horizontal lines on the upper

right corner, and go to Your Activity.

On both Facebook and Instagram,

you can set a time limit so that

the app will notify you when

you’ve reached the time you set

for yourself.

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