Facebook Invents New Unit of Time Called Flick
Recent reports have revealed that social media giant Facebook has made it to the headlines again. This time it is not because of a controversy but because of the fact that the company has invented a new unit of time called the Flicks. Defined by C++ programming, Flick is expected to make the experience of virtual reality smoother.
According to reports, a Flick is 1/705,600,000 of a second, which means that it is the next unit of time after the nanosecond. It was derived from the full word "frame-tick" and it is expected to be of use for programmers seeking to measure the time between video frames without having to refer to fractions. As such, no matter if the video is 24hz or 120hz, Flicks can ensure that everything is in sync with specific integers instead of decimals.
"When the numbers used are not integers, errors can gradually creep into computer calculations. These errors can build up over time, eventually causing inaccuracies that become noticeable," BBC's lead research engineer Matt Hammond said. "Very often in academic literature, you have this notion of presence and immersion. Immersion is the engagement you feel with a computer game. Presence is the notion of your brain feeling that you are there... I think perhaps a very fixed way of describing these time steps allows for developers to have a bit more flexibility in dealing with latency issues and making sure videos stay in sync."
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Although the invention of the Flick is certainly groundbreaking, Facebook is not the first company to do it. The first was Swatch, who introduced Internet Time, which was designed to eliminate the use and need for time zones. Considering the possibilities of Flick, fans are expecting more information in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the full documentation of its development is available in GitHub.
