San Francisco, Oct 17: Social networking giant Facebook is developing a camera-equipped set-top box for TVs that would support functionalities like video-calling, a media report said. Internally codenamed "Ripley", the device would use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automatically detect and follow people as they move through the frame during a video call, news website Cheddar reported on Tuesday. Apart from facilitating video-chat, the device could also help Facebook compete with the likes of Apple and Amazon in the TV-segment. Facebook May Soon Bring ‘Unsend’ Feature on Messenger.

In October, the social networking major launched its smart-speakers -- "Portal" -- which incorporated AI technology to follow user-movements while on a video-chat amd remove unwanted background noise during a call.

Priced at $199, sporting a 10-inch display, built-in Amazon Alexa support and pre-loaded with Facebook's own "Watch" video service, the smart speakers would begin shipping in November. Asus Zenfone Lite L1 and Asus Zenfone Max M1 Smartphones Launched in India at Rs 5999 and Rs 7499.

With projects like "Portal" and "Ripley" Facebook is trying to build a consumer-hardware business outside of its virtual reality brand 'Oculus' that was acquired by the social networking giant in March 2014 for nearly $2 billion. Facebook declined to comment on the subject, the report added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 17, 2018 03:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).