A Facebook engineer has invented a new unit of time called a flick.
It is the smallest time unit that is larger than a nanosecond.
The flick was designed to help developers keep video effects synchronised, according to a description on coding website GitHub.
Its invention gives programmers a way to measure the time between video frames without needing to use fractions.
The name flick derives from “frame-tick”.
The unit’s creator Christopher Horvath, shared his idea on Facebook last year, according to the GitHub description, before making modifications to the new measurement based on feedback.
Speaking to the BBC, an Oxford University researcher, who spoke anonymously, said the invention could help the development of virtual reality.
"Very often in academic literature, you have this notion of presence and immersion," he told the broadcaster.
"Immersion is the engagement you feel with a computer game. Presence is the notion of your brain feeling that you are there.
"Presence is very, very easy to break. 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."
The invention of the flick comes after Swatch introduced a unit that divides the day into 1,000 “.beats”.
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