Facebook engineer invents a new unit of time
Facebook’s VR division has come up with a new unit of time to measure the speed of digital audio and video
By John Shinal
Facebook’s virtual reality division has come up with a new unit of time — called Flicks — to measure the speed of digital audio and video.
In an online forum used by developers of open source software, the company described Flicks as “a unit of time, slightly larger than a nanosecond that exactly subdivides media frame rates and sampling frequencies.”
One of the creators of Flicks is Christopher Horvath, a former architect with Facebook’s Story Studio. Horvath left that team in May and began later that month at Facebook’s social virtual reality unit, according to a representative from Oculus.
He noted in a Facebook post that his invention had made it into the real world:
Story Studio, which Facebook closed last year, was nominated for an Emmy for the VR film “Dear Angelica.” Horvath won an Emmy for an earlier Oculus film called “Henry.”
Facebook shuttered the unit after deciding it didn’t want a stand-alone studio..
According to Facebook, Flick “is the smallest time unit which is LARGER than a nanosecond.”
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Christopher Horvath began working with Facebook’s social virtual reality unit in May, according to a representative from Oculus.
