Unfortunately, the iPhone 7 won't be great for AR

According to Kudan, maker of an augmented reality SDK for mobile, the iPhone 7's dual camera setup is just not suitable for augmented reality.

In their post they say:

Sadly this assumption is incorrect. The reasons for it being:

The distance between the lenses is simply too small
The focal length differs between the lenses
The distance between the lenses is of importance as the small baseline means only features very near to the cameras will appear measurably different across the views. For typical indoor environments, you would want a baseline of at least 20mm to allow you distinguish depth up to a few meters away.

The focal length difference means that the field of view between the cameras is different i.e. only a certain part of the image would match across the two camera feeds. This means that it would be harder to match the images.

- See more at: https://www.kudan.eu/kudan-news/ipho....9nedUaNy.dpuf

It seems a bit short-sighted. If they had taken AR into account they could have had all the same benefits that they have with two cameras now plus the additional AR functionality.

Originally Posted by EgoAnt

According to Kudan, maker of an augmented reality SDK for mobile, the iPhone 7's dual camera setup is just not suitable for augmented reality.

In their post they say:


It seems a bit short-sighted. If they had taken AR into account they could have had all the same benefits that they have with two cameras now plus the additional AR functionality.

Yes I think they installed two cameras more for the photo world, but I think that maybe some deeper algorithm may help to have more data, as the dynamic video algorithms I had a wonderful Nokia N900 a lot of years ago and some of the camera apps allows me to measure distance (with a huge error) but it was an 8 years old phone with a 5Mpx camera.

Right now there is also the option to add some gadgets almost any phone to improve a lot of things.

I only have a little hope about it because I'm about to receive one regular one and of course I want it VR and AR lol.

So no headphone jack, $160 Air Pods and not very good choice for AR, Iphone 7 not looking very attractive lol

Originally Posted by Sim_8_3

So no headphone jack, $160 Air Pods and not very good choice for AR, Iphone 7 not looking very attractive lol

Maybe is as good as a flagship from another brand, but there is not enough development (software and hardware) for Apple devices so far.

This is kind of disappointing. I'm hoping the new audio setup will offer some cool stereo audio, but it's looking like this is not the year for Apple and VR.

Nope. It'll only be compatible with VR, when Apple makes it's own VR device..

Originally Posted by mrfreeze

Nope. It'll only be compatible with VR, when Apple makes it's own VR device..

Well sure, but that doesn't mean there can't be some fun had in the mean time. Cardboard apps don't look as nice as they do on the Note 7, but the inertial sensors make head tracking a little nicer.

Originally Posted by Chemy JMHT

Maybe is as good as a flagship from another brand, but there is not enough development (software and hardware) for Apple devices so far.

So far from what I said and what you said, it looks like Apple is shooting themselves in the foot with the Iphone 7, it's not very appealing considering all the drawbacks, I'll stick with Samsung Android phones for now.

Originally Posted by mrfreeze

Nope. It'll only be compatible with VR, when Apple makes it's own VR device..

So when do you think that will be? Looking more and more like a cold day in hell lol.

I'm pretty sure Apple is going to focus primarily on AR. Probably for the iPhone 8.

Also, iPhone's small screen resolution is no good for VR.

It's a shame, apple really missed the boat with VR, especially with the google pixel/daydream release.

Like someone said Apple would never make their device specifically compatible with any other company's device or Technology.... That would be playing second fiddle... The iPhone will be VR /AR compatible only when Apple makes it's own VR /AR device and the device itself will be compatible only with Apple devices... That's just the way they do it... A bit annoying for some people but there you are...

Originally Posted by vmrgav

Also, iPhone's small screen resolution is no good for VR.

I would imagine when they did VR, that they would up the resolution.