The iPhone 12 Pro models are already speculated to come with a LiDAR sensor on the rear, and the latest leak on this claims it will be a Sony LiDAR depth camera that the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will come with.
According to a Fast Company report on this, the Sony LiDAR depth camera that the two iPhone Pro models will come fitted with is the same as that on the 2020 iPad Pro launch in March this year. According to the report, Apple has been working on this for several years now, and the iPhone 12 Pro models are going to be the culmination of these efforts.
For those who aren’t aware of the technology yet, a LiDAR sensor is used to measure depth using light pulses. The technology relies on the ‘time-of-flight’ system to measure depth in which a stream of light pulses is subjected to the surface. The time it takes for the incident light to return to the sensor is then mapped using a software.
This provides an accurate depth map of the surroundings, which makes it easy to make out how close or far an object is from other objects in the background or foreground. In turn, this provides for portrait shots that are more accurate and realistic, with a sharp differentiation of the edges.
The LiDAR sensor also has vast applications in the field of Augmented Reality, where the depth map thus created makes it possible to place virtual objects in the real world. The more accurate the LiDAR sensor feedback is, the more realistic the virtual objects will seem to be when viewed off the iPhone’s display. This again has vast potential in the field of AR-based games or other applications.
Apple is expected to launch its iPhone 12 line-up in October this year, which is a delay of around a month owing to the ongoing pandemic. Sales are expected to begin shortly after that though it could be November for the iPhone 12 range to make it to all parts of the world, which would be just weeks ahead of the Holidays.
