It’s possible you’ll someday be capable to use your iPhone or iPad to scan a room and generate a floorplan, as evidenced by a newly granted Apple patent (quantity ).
In regards to the patent
The patent typically pertains to producing two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometric representations of bodily environments, and specifically, to techniques, strategies, and units that generate geometric representations primarily based on data detected in bodily environments.
Within the patent, Apple notes that floorplans play an vital position in designing, understanding, and transforming indoor areas. They’re typically efficient in conveying geometric and semantic data of a bodily surroundings. As an illustration, a consumer could view a floorplan to shortly establish room extents, wall buildings and corners, the areas of doorways and home windows, and object preparations.
Apple says that there are quite a few hurdles to offering computer-based techniques to mechanically generate floorplans, room measurements, or object measurements primarily based on sensor knowledge. Nevertheless, the sensor knowledge obtained concerning a bodily surroundings (e.g., photographs and depth knowledge) could also be incomplete or inadequate to supply correct floorplans and measurements.
For instance, indoor environments typically include an assortment of objects, equivalent to lamps, desks, chairs, and many others., which will cover the architectural strains of the room that may in any other case be used to detect edges of a room to construct an correct floorplan. As one other instance, photographs and depth knowledge usually lack semantic data and floorplans and measurements generated with out such knowledge could lack accuracy.
Apple says that current strategies don’t enable for automated, correct, and environment friendly era of floorplans and measurements utilizing a cell gadget, for instance, primarily based on a consumer capturing pictures or video or different sensor knowledge whereas strolling about in a room. What’s extra, current strategies could fail to supply sufficiently correct and environment friendly floorplans and measurements in actual time (e.g., quick floorplan/measurement throughout scanning) environments.
Apple thinks it will possibly do higher.
Abstract of the patent
Right here’s Apple’s summary of the patent: “Numerous implementations disclosed herein embrace units, techniques, and strategies that generate floorplans and measurements utilizing a three-dimensional (3D) illustration of a bodily surroundings generated primarily based on sensor knowledge.”
