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Funny. Apple is clearly hiding some of the purpose in the dark. So Samsung first copied, then realized it has no own plan für the use.
Let me predict: If Apple shows his cards, Samsung will re-add the sensor in no time.
That's what people say in the Apple fantasy land. In reality Samsung was way ahead of Apple with ToF (Samsung Galaxy S10 5G - January 2019). By the time Apple was able to implement it, Samsung already decided to get rid of it. In general, Apple is usually one or more years behind Samsung with new tech (OLED, NFC, wireless charging etc.), so the claims about Samsung copying Apple simply indicate total ignorance.
 
That's what people say in the Apple fantasy land. In reality Samsung was way ahead of Apple with ToF (Samsung Galaxy S10 5G - January 2019). By the time Apple was able to implement it, Samsung already decided to get rid of it. In general, Apple is usually one or more years behind Samsung with new tech (OLED, NFC, wireless charging etc.), so the claims about Samsung copying Apple simply indicate total ignorance.
Yes you are right. I'd even forgotten about the S10+ 5G
 
Apple hasn’t really kept their purpose a secret. They’re investing heavily in AR/MR and this helps them develop the technology and practical applications even without having a headset on the market (yet).

And while those uses seem gimmicky on a pancake device right now, once a headset hits the market, having that technology on your phone means some of those features will be available on that device, too. That makes for an attractive, cohesive ecosystem.
 
"We have no business model or application story for this feature, but Apple included it so we did too."
 
Samsung didn't invest in the software side to match the ToF hardware, making it nearly useless to app developers.

FYI if you want scan spaces using LiDAR on the iPhone/iPad, try out Forge (disclaimer: I made it.)
 
Funny. Apple is clearly hiding some of the purpose in the dark. So Samsung first copied, then realized it has no own plan für the use.
Let me predict: If Apple shows his cards, Samsung will re-add the sensor in no time.
What are you talking about? The lidar debuted with the 2020 iPad pro and later with the IPhone 12 pro while Samsung had a tof sensor since the galaxy S10 5g lol
 
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How does that work?? It doesn't have enough information to show that. If you shift the paint of view, let's say, forward, and you will be able to see things previously covered by a person, but the camera then couldn't see it, so that data was never captured. Even if you have the depth data, it is physically not possible to reconstruct the AR experience.

The only way I can think of is to show blank regions when you zoom around. Show you 3D view when possible, and blank regions when not.

A joke:

Imagine your boyfriend (if you are a girl) takes a photo of you butt naked from your back with LIDAR on, then he "turns on AR experience" after the photo has been taken, then moves the point of view forward to the other side of you, can he see your boobs? If it's AR, he sure should be able to.


1. You can try it today. Go buy it: Halide. They have the AR mode.
2. Of course you can’t show information of what it didn’t save. It’s blank if you walk in and do a 180
3. That doesn’t mean there won't be future tools that content-aware fills in missing spots
 
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Am I the only one who sees the potential in Lidar for us consumers?
What about using it to scan your body's measurements, save it to your online profile and then shop clothes / shoes online without having to worry if it will fit or not. You could have a 3D avatar on your screen and see the T-shirt directly on your avatar to see how it fits before buying.

Also for measurements... your phone can now replace your tape measurer. Need the width required for the order of your new fridge? take out your phone and it's done.

Those are two simple examples but there are many more that we are just not aware.
I can see those uses but a lot of those same things can be done with a 3d camera that give results that are good enough.
How often do you need a tap measure? The answer to that question is generally not that often and those times that you do in all honestly you are going to want to use a tap measure not a consumer grade LiDAR from your phone so even then you will pull out the tap measure. Hell the measuring on my iPhone XR does good enough for very rough measurements.
Yeah it is good but even on those measurements from your phone it would be consider in cases you need something that is good enough. Hell my XR currently does good enough measurements for roughly figuring things out.

Now a great place for LiDAR consumer side I could see it being useful is yes in AR but for selecting furniture. That way you would at least get a real idea what it would look like in a room from a given point as it can auto scale things a bit better but sadly that is a long ways off before those companies catch on and start doing it right and even then a 3d camera in its current form would be good enough.

The real thing as others have been pointing out is there is no kill feature for it. It mostly useful things is still minor and rarely use. It is not accurate enough for detail measurements so it is competing with todays tech that has is good enough. Going higher in that area cost some real money.

It all sounds cool but still a long ways off before it become useful.
 
I can see those uses but a lot of those same things can be done with a 3d camera that give results that are good enough.
How often do you need a tap measure? The answer to that question is generally not that often and those times that you do in all honestly you are going to want to use a tap measure not a consumer grade LiDAR from your phone so even then you will pull out the tap measure. Hell the measuring on my iPhone XR does good enough for very rough measurements.
Yeah it is good but even on those measurements from your phone it would be consider in cases you need something that is good enough. Hell my XR currently does good enough measurements for roughly figuring things out.

Now a great place for LiDAR consumer side I could see it being useful is yes in AR but for selecting furniture. That way you would at least get a real idea what it would look like in a room from a given point as it can auto scale things a bit better but sadly that is a long ways off before those companies catch on and start doing it right and even then a 3d camera in its current form would be good enough.

The real thing as others have been pointing out is there is no kill feature for it. It mostly useful things is still minor and rarely use. It is not accurate enough for detail measurements so it is competing with todays tech that has is good enough. Going higher in that area cost some real money.

It all sounds cool but still a long ways off before it become useful.
You are 100% correct, for now the use of the LIDAR is very limited and it will take some time for it to catch on (if it ever does)... but might as well include it in a smartphone in order for the technology to get implemented faster.

And we all know Apple never stops at "good enough"
 
I can see those uses but a lot of those same things can be done with a 3d camera that give results that are good enough.
How often do you need a tap measure? The answer to that question is generally not that often and those times that you do in all honestly you are going to want to use a tap measure not a consumer grade LiDAR from your phone so even then you will pull out the tap measure. Hell the measuring on my iPhone XR does good enough for very rough measurements.
Yeah it is good but even on those measurements from your phone it would be consider in cases you need something that is good enough. Hell my XR currently does good enough measurements for roughly figuring things out.

Now a great place for LiDAR consumer side I could see it being useful is yes in AR but for selecting furniture. That way you would at least get a real idea what it would look like in a room from a given point as it can auto scale things a bit better but sadly that is a long ways off before those companies catch on and start doing it right and even then a 3d camera in its current form would be good enough.

The real thing as others have been pointing out is there is no kill feature for it. It mostly useful things is still minor and rarely use. It is not accurate enough for detail measurements so it is competing with todays tech that has is good enough. Going higher in that area cost some real money.

It all sounds cool but still a long ways off before it become useful.
The problem with using it as a tape measure is the start point is arbitrary or at best, ill defined.
With handheld digital tape measures like bosch or smartline, the case size is known so you hold the device flush to a surface and it factors in the case length when calculating. Great for measuring properties in real estate.

But how do you do that with an iPhone? You need to look at the screen.
 
When LiDAR topics came before iPhone 12 Pro MAX I had raised the purpose and demonstrated feature for the usage of LiDAR since it was already made available in the iPad Pro few years back. All those who supported this feature could throw arguments like immersive VR, Autocad drawings etc....but apparently not many are accusing this feature obviously due to limited real world appeal or use as of now. But consumers being lured into this as big and have paid huge money for a dump squib
A few years back? The iPad Pro with LiDAR is March 2020, and the iPhone with LiDAR is September 2020.
Also, it's used when you take pictures in less than ideal lighting, which is most of the time...
 
1. You can try it today. Go buy it: Halide. They have the AR mode.
2. Of course you can’t show information of what it didn’t save. It’s blank if you walk in and do a 180
3. That doesn’t mean there will be future tools that content-aware fills in missing spots
Try the "Measure" app for me.

Is it accurate for small things on a table, and also for big things like a pool?
Does it work well for things like a big white wall with little reference?
Is it a practical and useful, or is it like Siri?
 
Apple is already late in offering any real world usage for the Lidar sensor. Currently it is expensive technology that only offers marginal improvement in photo shooting. It is currently a gimmick!
By including it in iPhones, eventually all iPhones, Apple is driving the cost down per unit and helping to fund the research to shrink its size for when it is added to their AR glasses.
 
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Try the "Measure" app for me.

Is it accurate for small things on a table, and also for big things like a pool?
Does it work well for things like a big white wall with little reference?
Is it a practical and useful, or is it like Siri?


Works well. I use it on shipping boxes all the time.
Yes it works well on big white walls considering color is irrelevant to the lidar sensor.

What does this have to do with anything?
 
Works well. I use it on shipping boxes all the time.
Yes it works well on big white walls considering color is irrelevant to the lidar sensor.

What does this have to do with anything?
Trying to convince myself to upgrade this year.

Do you think having an iPhone Pro Max and a 16 inch MacBook Pro would render having iPad Pro 12.9 redundant and unnecessary?
 
"We have no business model or application story for this feature, but Apple included it so we did too."
Btw Samsung had it first in February 2019 with the Samsung S10 5G before the 2020 iPad Pro and iPhone 12. Samsung did not copy Apple to adopt 3D ToF camera. The problem is that there's no compelling use case for Samsung. It seems Apple will be using it for some form of AR later on.
 
Btw Samsung had it first in February 2019 with the Samsung S10 5G before the 2020 iPad Pro and iPhone 12. Samsung did not copy Apple to adopt 3D ToF camera. The problem is that there's no compelling use case for Samsung. It seems Apple will be using it for some form of AR later on.
Thanks for posting that correction. I went looking for a delete option after posting, found only the edit option, and decided to let my stupidity just stay where I played it. :)
 
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