Integrate iOS device camera and motion features to produce augmented reality experiences in your app or game using ARKit.

ARKit Documentation

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Technical Inquiry regarding iPhone LiDAR Specifications and ARKit Data Integrity
Hardware Specifications Regarding the LiDAR scanner in the iPhone 13/14/15/16/17 Pro series, could you please provide the following technical details for academic verification: Point Cloud Density / Resolution: The effective resolution of the depth map. Sampling Frequency: The sensor's refresh rate. Accuracy Metrics: Official tolerance levels regarding depth accuracy relative to distance (specifically within 0.5m – 2m range). Data Acquisition Methodology For a scientific thesis requiring high data integrity: Does Apple recommend a custom ARKit implementation over third-party applications (e.g., Polycam) to access raw depth data? I need to confirm if third-party apps typically apply smoothing or post-processing that would obscure the sensor's native performance, which must be avoided for my error analysis.
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Jan ’26
Access UltraWideCamera when ARSession is running
ARSession provides video stream from the wide angle camera. If ARSession uses the ultra wide camera at the same time, ARSession may provide video stream from that camera, otherwise AVCaptureSession with an ultra wide camera should be allowed to launch. It would be very very useful if we can access different cameras while ARSession is running. We'd like to cooperate with you if possible. Steps to reproduce: run an AVCaptureSession and then run an ARSession. The AVCaptureSession stops.
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Jan ’26
LiDAR Projector Pattern iPhone 15 Pro vs. 12 Pro – Research Project Question
Dear Apple Team, I’m a high school student (vocational upper secondary school) working on my final research project about LiDAR sensors in smartphones, specifically Apple’s iPhone implementation. My current understanding (for context): I understand Apple’s LiDAR uses dToF with SPAD detectors: A VCSEL laser emits pulses, a DOE splits the beam into a dot pattern, and each spot’s return time is measured separately → point cloud generation. My specific questions: How many active projection dots does the LiDAR projector have in the iPhone 15 Pro vs. iPhone 12 Pro? Are the dots static or do they shift/move over time? How many depth measurement points does the system deliver internally (after processing)? What is the ranging accuracy (cm-level precision) of each measurement point? Experimental background: Using an IR night vision camera, I counted approximately 111 dots on the 15 Pro vs. 576 dots on the 12 Pro. Do these match the internal specifications? Photos of my measurements are available if helpful. Contact request: I would be very grateful if you could connect me with an Apple engineer or ARKit specialist who works with LiDAR technology. I would love to ask follow-up questions directly and would be happy to provide my contact details for this purpose. These specifications would be essential for my research paper. Thank you very much in advance! Best regards, Max! Vocational Upper Secondary School Hans-Leipelt-Schule Donauwörth Research Project: “LiDAR Sensor Technology in Smartphones”
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Jan ’26
VisionOS 2.0 Main Camera Access Enterprise Entitlement Not Recognized in XCode
I am working on a project that requires access to the main camera on the Vision Pro. My main account holder applied for the necessary enterprise entitlement and we were approved and received the Enterprise.license file by email. I have added the Enterprise.license file to my project, and manually added the com.apple.developer.arkit.main-camera-access.allow entitlement to the entitlement file and set it to true since it was not available in the list when I tried to use the + Capability button in the Signing & Capabilites tab. I am getting an error: Provisioning profile "iOS Team Provisioning Profile: " doesn't include the com.apple.developer.arkit.main-camera-access.allow entitlement. I have checked the provisioning profile settings online, and there is no manual option for adding the main camera access entitlement, and it does not seem to be getting the approval from the license.
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Sep ’25
Create Anchor on Objects from 2D Data
We're developing a VisionOS application, where we would like to do product recognition (like food items). We have enterprise entitlements and therefore also main camera access for VisionOS. We send this live camera frames to a trained CoreML model where we will receive 2D coordinates from the model detection prediction. Now, we would like to create a 3D anchor on the detected items so it can be visible for user. The 3D anchor is going to be the class name of the detected item. How do we transform this 2D coordinate from the model prediction to a 3D anchor?
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Feb ’25
VisionOS hands replacement inside an Immersive Space
Still don't understand why no one is clarifying about this Apple Video https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10111 At the end of this video, there's an incomplete tutorial about connecting a USDZ with mesh and Skeleton structure to the hand tracking system. No example project is linked, and no one is giving the community any clarification. Please can you help us to understand how to proceed?
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Mar ’25
Difference in ARKit plane detection from iPhone 8 to iPhone 15
I am developing an ARKit based application that requires plane detection of the tabletop at which the user is seated. Early testing was with an iPhone 8 and iPhone 8+. With those devices, ARKit rapidly detected the plane of the tabletop when it was only 8 to 10 inches away. Using iPhone 15 with the same code, it seems to require me to move the phone more like 15 to 16 inches away before detecting the plane of the table. This is an awkward motion for a user seated at a table. To validate that it was not necessarily a feature of my code, I determined that the same behavior results with Apple's sample AR Interaction application. Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, have suggestions to improve the situation?
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Feb ’25
How to make a RealityKit `Entity` respond to Environment light
I am developing an visionos app. I load a .usdz file as a Reality Entity(such as a cabbage). And I want such an effect: When I turn on a desk lamp in real world near the Entity, the surface of the Entity will correctly respond to the light in the real world. I want an effect like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/comments/1as01mm/shiny_disco_ball_reflecting_my_room/ I look up the api such as ImageBasedLightComponent andVirtualEnvironmentProbeComponent in RealityKit、EnvironmentLightEstimationProvider in ARKit,but I do not know how to code. Besides, it will be better if the shadow will also respond to the light correctly.
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Feb ’25
When to use an AnchorEntity or HandTrackingProvider in VisionOS
As I understand it there are two ways I can track a hand, or a joint, in RealityKit: either, create an AnchorEntity, for example AnchorEntity(.hand(.left, location: .palm)) or, set up an ARSession with a HandTrackingProvider ( a lot more code which I haven't repeated here). Assuming this is correct, when would I want to use one over the other?
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Mar ’25
ARKit hand tracking
Hello, I am developing a visionOS application and am interested in obtaining detailed data of users’ hands through ARKit, including but not limited to Transform and rotation angle. I have reviewed Happy Beem, but it appears to only introduce the method of identifying the user’s specific gestures. Could you please advise on how to obtain the Transform and rotation angle of the user’s hand? Thank you.
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Mar ’25
A question about adding grounding shadow in visionPro
I want adding grounding shadow on my Entity in RealityView on visionPro. However it seems that the shadow can only appear on another Entity. So I using plane detection in ARKit and add a transparent plane on it to render shadow. let planeEntity = ModelEntity(mesh: .generatePlane(width: anchor.geometry.extent.width, height: anchor.geometry.extent.height), materials: [material]) planeEntity.components.set(OpacityComponent(opacity: 0.0)) But sometimes there will be a border around my Entityon the plane. I do not know why it will happen, and I want remove the border.
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Mar ’25
Merge MeshAnchor from Scene Reconstruction for Vision Pro
Hi there, I'm trying to merge the mesh anchor into a single mesh, but couldn't find any resources on this. Here is the code where I make the mesh from each mesh anchor, and assigned it to a model component with a shader graph material. func run(_ sceneRec: SceneReconstructionProvider) async { for await update in sceneRec.anchorUpdates { switch update.event { case .added, .updated: // Get or create entity for this anchor let anchorEntity = anchors[update.anchor.id] ?? { let entity = ModelEntity() root?.addChild(entity) anchors[update.anchor.id] = entity return entity }() // Remove any existing children for child in anchorEntity.children { child.removeFromParent() } // Generate the mesh from the anchor guard let mesh = try? await MeshResource(from: update.anchor) else { return } guard let shape = try? await ShapeResource.generateStaticMesh(from: update.anchor) else { continue } print("Mesh added, vertices: \(update.anchor.geometry.vertices.count), bounds: \(mesh.bounds)") // Get the material to use var material: RealityKit.Material if isMaterialLoaded, let loadedMaterial = self.shaderMaterial { material = loadedMaterial } else { // Use a temporary material until the shader loads var tempMaterial = UnlitMaterial() tempMaterial.color = .init(tint: .purple.withAlphaComponent(0.5)) material = tempMaterial } await MainActor.run { anchorEntity.components.set(ModelComponent(mesh: mesh, materials: [material])) anchorEntity.setTransformMatrix(update.anchor.originFromAnchorTransform, relativeTo: nil) // Add collision component with static flag - required for spatial interactions anchorEntity.components.set(CollisionComponent( shapes: [shape], isStatic: true, filter: .default )) // Make entity interactive - enables spatial taps, drags, etc. anchorEntity.components.set(InputTargetComponent()) let shadowComponent = GroundingShadowComponent( castsShadow: true, receivesShadow: true ) anchorEntity.components.set(shadowComponent) } I then use a spatial tap gesture to set the position parameter in the shader graph material that creates a nice gradient from the tap position on the mesh to the rest of the mesh. SpatialTapGesture() .targetedToAnyEntity() .onEnded { value in let tappedEntity = value.entity // Check if the tapped entity is a child of tracking.meshAnchors if isChildOfMeshAnchors(entity: tappedEntity) { // Get local position (in the entity's coordinate space) let localPosition = value.location3D // Convert to world position (scene coordinate space) let worldPosition = value.convert(localPosition, from: .local, to: .scene) print("Tapped mesh anchor at local position: \(localPosition)") print("Tapped mesh anchor at world position: \(worldPosition)") // Update the material parameter with the tap position updateMaterialTapPosition(entity: tappedEntity, position: worldPosition) } else { print("Tapped entity is not a mesh anchor") } } } My issue is that because there are several mesh anchors, the gradient often gets cut off by the edge of the mesh generated from the mesh anchor as suppose to a nice continuous gradient across the entire scene reconstructed mesh I couldn't find any documentations on how to merge mesh from mesh anchors, any tips would be helpful! Thank you!
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Mar ’25
Human Body joint tracking in VisionOS
The goal is to achieve precise joint tracking for clinical assessment. The Doctor is wearing the AVP and observing the Patients movement. Do you have any recommended best practices for integrating real-time joint tracking and displaying them on the patient within visionOS? We attempted to use VNHumanBodyPose3DObservation, which theoretically should work, but we are unable to display the detected joints in an Immersive Space for real-time validation. This makes it difficult for the doctor to ensure accurate tracking and if possible a photo or video of the Range of Motion assessment would be needed for the patient record. Are there alternative methods to achieve precise real-time joint tracking without requiring main camera access (com.apple.developer.arkit.main-camera-access.allow)?
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Mar ’25