What is Apple Spatial Video? Spatial video is a video with six degrees of freedom, with a perspective that changes as you move. It is somewhat like a hologram like the ones depicted in sci-fi movies. I know that’s hard to believe. So I want to show you some experiments to show you what spatial video is like, and how it’s fundamentally different from 3D or VR180 video. I’ll also show you how you can get a taste of what spatial video is like with an app that you can download today.
How does it work? It uses the iPhone 15 Pro’s LiDAR sensors. Here’s a more detailed explanation.
If you have an iPhone with LiDAR, you can try out the app yourself. It’s called Record3D. It enables you to record 3D videos using your iPhone’s LiDAR or FaceID camera. Tip: The best way I’ve found to view your 3D videos is the AR mode, which puts the 3D video virtually in your room.
It’s basically the inverse of 360 video. Granted, Apple LiDAR is trash for anything but little app games and diversions like this, but it’s fun to play with for a couple of minutes. Still, I’m excited to seem them advancing it – I presume for use with their upcoming iGoggles, but hopefully in a format that can be leveraged by more generic VR hardware.
Yes spatial video is specifically designed for Vision Pro. I think Apple won’t be interested in making it easy to view in a generic VR headset, but they might make it viewable in AR. If it is, then I’m guessing it’s not too hard to make a webvr app that can view the spatial video.