Final Cut Pro: Apple’s macOS and Mac demo application?
From 1999 to 2009 Final Cut versions 1 to 7 were used by Apple to show off the latest their technologies could do. Especially the QuickTime API. Next week is WWDC 2018 – Apple’s annual developer conference.
For the first time in many years Final Cut Pro X requires the current version of macOS: High Sierra 10.13. I hope this means the Video Applications team are able to show developers what can be done with macOS frameworks. The more that applications use macOS-only features, the more Macs Apple will sell.
Not much of the WWDC 2018 schedule has been revealed yet, but one session shows what Apple could do:
Vision is a high-level framework that provides an easy to use API for handling many computer vision tasks. We’ll dive deep into a particularly powerful feature of Vision—tracking objects in video streams. Learn best practices for using Vision in your app. Gain a greater understanding of how request handlers function in terms of lifecycle, performance, and memory utilization.
This kind of tracking is much more useful than tracking pixels or planes. Tools that understand (using machine learning-built models) what the objects in a video clip can be much more powerful. Instead of tracking a number of regions in a clip and working out how they are moving in 3D space relative to each other, object tracking understands how to recognise and track specific objects such as faces, people, vehicles, signs and buildings. Once tracked, the appearance of these things can be modified by the application. This will work when the objects seem to move and turn in the shot and even when are they are obscured by other objects.
Next week I’ll tune in to see forthcoming features of macOS (and iOS) that are relevant to Apple’s video applications.
In a few days the rest of the agenda will be announced. Next week people all over the world will be able to watch live streams of the sessions as they happen. A few hours after each session, videos will be available to watch on the Apple website.