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M1 iPad Pro Selfie Camera Can Automatically Pan and Zoom to Keep You in Frame During Video Calls

The front-facing camera is still on the side (portrait mode) instead of the middle (landscape mode)?
Are you kidding me?

Anyone who does serious video conferencing knows how awkward it is to video conference with the front-facing camera on the side. It's the worst possible positioning.
 
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I doubt that it's real pan and zoom, but more cropping. The front camera is probably capturing 12MP constantly, but the software only processes where the face is. The camera doesn't actually follow you around (panning). Most front cameras are fixed focal length lenses, so the doubtful on the zooming front as well.

Still, an impressive feature. Especially useful if you need to drain the lizard while zoom conferencing.
 
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the Helix said:
The front-facing camera is still on the side (portrait mode) instead of the middle (landscape mode)?
Are you kidding me?

Anyone who does serious video conferencing knows how awkward it is to video conference with the front-facing camera on the side. It's the worst possible positioning.
Click to expand...
The wide angle and following you feature makes up for that or that’s what the videos made it look like at least.
 
jmgregory1 said:
This face tracking is cool, but the issue I have with the Zoom / Teams / FaceTime calls on the iPad Pro is I almost exclusively use it in landscape mode, so I’m never looking directly at the camera, since it’s on the side. The question I do have is, will this tracking work while the iPad is in landscape mode - such as what it would be if attached to the Magic Keyboard? Seems to me that it would be tracking in the vertical direction only when in landscape.
Click to expand...
They showed it working in landscape so I’d say yes
 
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Of the original iPad Pro with face ID from two generations ago, which I’m using right now, already supports all of the trudepth and portrait features on the front facing camera. This article makes it sound like that’s new but it’s been around for a couple of years.

The only thing it doesn’t have is the ultra wide lens and 12 megapixels to be able to do this scrapping centerstage mode. But all of the rest of it has been around for a while
 
steve23094 said:
Does this work for third party apps, or just FaceTime?
Click to expand...
Also with 3rd party apps
4A4502A6-FF9C-4DD3-9D4A-BE39650E1E10.jpeg
 
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the Helix said:
The front-facing camera is still on the side (portrait mode) instead of the middle (landscape mode)?
Are you kidding me?

Anyone who does serious video conferencing knows how awkward it is to video conference with the front-facing camera on the side. It's the worst possible positioning.
Click to expand...
Check the video. It's pretty neat.

 
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SenorWhyMe said:
still doesn't look like I will upgrade from my 2018 11" model. Honestly speaking I was hoping for final cut pro or xcode to be announced to even push me to upgrade. Atm I got the macbook air m1 with modded thermal pads so it looks like I will just stick with than and my ipad pro 11 2018 model
Click to expand...
Software announcements are normally at WWDC.
 
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CPx said:
But the camera is still on the wrong side so your eyes will not be looking... center stage.
Click to expand...

I have always wondered this about landscape mode video calls on iPad. Just feels weird. Would love to hear from someone uses it regularly to get their perspective. On the other hand, I have several people in office who do the teams calls with a webcam that is either on the side, or at a level lower than the eyeline. That feels really strange on the other side.
 
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Will this have an SDK? Some family don’t have Apple devices so no FaceTime. I know, weird, but they’re on my wife’s side.
 
jmgregory1 said:
This face tracking is cool, but the issue I have with the Zoom / Teams / FaceTime calls on the iPad Pro is I almost exclusively use it in landscape mode, so I’m never looking directly at the camera, since it’s on the side. The question I do have is, will this tracking work while the iPad is in landscape mode - such as what it would be if attached to the Magic Keyboard? Seems to me that it would be tracking in the vertical direction only when in landscape.
Click to expand...
Exactly the problem I’ve encountered. It seems that the tracking won’t resolve the issue
 
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himanshumodi said:
I have always wondered this about landscape mode video calls on iPad. Just feels weird. Would love to hear from someone uses it regularly to get their perspective. On the other hand, I have several people in office who do the teams calls with a webcam that is either on the side, or at a level lower than the eyeline. That feels really strange on the other side.
Click to expand...
Over the past year I used the iPad Pro regularly for videocalls (Zoom / Teams). I have the magic keyboard which places the device in landscape mode, and landscape is preferable for video conference generally. The feedback from colleagues / clients was negative as from their point of view it appeared like I was looking away from the camera / screen. I looked into using an external webcam with the iPad (Brio 4K) as a workaround but this was not possible - at least I could not make it work. I finally stopped using the iPad for videocalls and now use other devices for this. All rather frustrating having to use other devices after spending so much money on the iPad Pro. I’m disappointed that Apple have not addressed this shortcoming with this update.
 
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gsmornot said:
You will have to walk behind the screen to clear a boogie. No more leaning over. Ha. Really through, great feature. I can see this in my kitchen just like in the ad.

Side note: The range in the back with the red knobs, Wolf maybe, looks sweet. As someone that cooks often I would love one of those.
Click to expand...

a loogie or a booger? Is that what you mean?

great feature actually. Strange imac didn’t get this why?
 
CPx said:
But the camera is still on the wrong side so your eyes will not be looking... center stage.
Click to expand...

remember when your mom and dad or another family member or friend caught you playing with that green big fan running right up to a close and trying to project your voice as the first version of auto tune when you actually came up to burning surface to close ginger loved ones tell you to keep your distance? Same should be sad when you try to take a photo or video: don’t be so close to the lands

lol problem solved
 
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