With all the buzz about its upcoming Vision Pro augmented-reality headset, Apple sent out a reminder that iPad Pro also has AR capabilities. The tablet powers Deep Field, an application that lets children use an Apple Pencil to draw plants inspired by works of art, and have their creations rendered into 3D via the magic of augmented reality.
Deep Field shows off iPad’s augmented reality capabilities
Augmented reality overlays virtual images onto the real world. The experience is more immersive in headsets like the Apple Vision Pro, but an iPad Pro can provide a “lite” experience by using the screen and camera to combine images and reality (as shown above). A built-in LiDAR scanner allows the tablet to make an accurate 3D map of its area so AR objects can be placed approximately.
Deep Field takes advantage of these capabilities. It is part of a new art experience created by Australian artists Tin Nguyen and Edward Cutting of Tin&Ed. It is initially at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney and the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
“Participants are invited to take inspiration from works of art and the environment to draw their own flora and fauna, experimenting with vibrant color, shapes, and textures,” Apple said in a press release Wednesday. “After dreaming up fantastical plant parts, participants sketch their designs with Apple Pencil in the Deep Field iPad app.”
The creations are then transformed with augmented reality by the Deep Field software. “Using the LiDAR Scanner on iPad Pro, participants watch their artworks bloom into spectacular 3D plant structures trailing across the floors, walls, and ceilings around them,” said Apple.
This is a reminder that Apple has been trying to get users and developers excited about augmented reality since it created the ARKit development tool and built the LiDAR scanner into recent iPad Pro models. But at this point, it seems it’ll take Vision Pro to move AR into the mainstream.
