Tech News
← Back to articles

8 really cool ways I use LiDAR on my iPhone and iPad - and you can too

read original related products more articles

Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.

ZDNET's key takeaways

LiDAR unlocks new iPhone AR experiences.

Scan rooms, measure spaces, and preview furniture.

Try LiDAR apps for 3D scans and fun AR games.

Your iPhone Pro and iPad Pro may have a helpful and powerful feature you might not know about. Built directly into the last few generations of devices, the Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanner emits a laser to measure the distances of surrounding objects. This feature provides a few key benefits.

Also: This hidden iPhone feature keeps your private apps completely out of sight - how I use it

First, LiDAR helps the camera take sharper photos, particularly in dark conditions. Second, the scanner taps into AR, or augmented reality, to combine the real and virtual worlds, acting as an AR virtual tape measure, showing you how new furniture would look in your home, scanning and recreating 3D models, or immersing you in AR games.

Introduced a few years ago, the LiDAR scanner is available on the Pro and Pro Max models of the iPhone 12 and higher, as well as the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models from 2020 and later. Nestled among the rear cameras, the scanner can detect objects up to 5 meters, or 16.5 feet.

... continue reading