Specifications for iPad Pro / iPhone (iOS LiDAR) for the best Area Target Generation

[randerson-3]

I would like to know which iPad/iPhone is the best for creating Area Targets. Maybe PTC or a community member has done such testing.

1. Does a device with the latest processor and more RAM and storage allow for a larger area to be scanned or a better quality scan to be created?
2. I believe the app will limit the scan to 5 minutes, is this different depending on device specs? 
3. In the allotted time can I scan as big of an area or as high quality as possible?

Some of the crucial factors as I see them are:

1. What is the maximum area size that can be scanned? Does it vary between device specifications? (I found this in the best practices guide: 10 m2 up to 50 m2 or 500 sq ft are best captured with the Vuforia Area Target Creator app, our is that we cannot use the Matterport or other scanners as Matterport is not IP-rated and the others are not supported in Studio, therefore we need to scan as large of a space as possible with iOS.)
2. Is there a required storage size per m2 in a target? Or the storage size of a scan using the maximum time allocated.
3. What will the quality of the scan be? I will be scanning industrial piping, therefore require high quality/density to capture the detail.
4. What is the accuracy of the scan (e.g. 3mm)? The scans are of brownfield projects, there are no 3D models available, therefore we would like it as accurate as possible.

Any advice or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[RolandRaytchev]

Hi @randerson-3 ,

my opinion is that  from the mobile devices the the best option is to use  IPad Pro  or iPhone Pro with LiDAR server according https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs324618

• iPad Pro 12.9 or iPhone 12 Pro released in 2020 introduced a new feature of LiDAR scanner function

The HoloLens 2 also could be used as scanner of the enviroment but this is only supported (so far I know) for scanning of the spatial anchor based location - according  to Article https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs370544

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBAmc_Ibo7A  (Editor - Vuforia Capture) I think internally it creates as part the capture file also an Environment scans , but I as mentioned already it is not supported and I did not tested it if it could be used as Area Targets

I have myself iPad Pro with LiDAR  device (11. Zoll 3 Generation) and I  will try to check some of your points regarding this device and will try share there my observations. Possibly for some points I will contact the R&D team and if there is a feedback from development I will share it to this topic later
To the limitation - so far I know - Yes there is limit which could not be changed - 5 minutes but I  not 100% sure . The limit should ensure that the target will be ok for the devices resources and is sufficient to handle. But also for this point I need  also to check if there is in the mean time some change.

[RolandRaytchev]

I found here an confirmation (6 months old) from dev team about the 5 minutes limit:

the limit is 5 minutes now -> intentionally. For larger spaces one should go with a professional scanner (Matterport), scanner app is meant to take sample scans to demonstrate the technology. Scan quality cannot be improved by extending the time, longer scans are usually worse due to various reasons.

further 

we could point customers to the link:

 https://library.vuforia.com/develop-area-targets/combining-multiple-area-targets 

article, that describes a recipe to use multiple ATs covering larger spaces.

also other links which are relevant and could be helpful:

https://library.vuforia.com/area-targets/best-practices-scanning-environment

-> according this document( Best Practices for Preparing and Scanning an Environment ) :

• 10 m² up to 50 m² or 500 sq ft are best captured with the Vuforia Area Target Creator app or Vuforia Area Target Capture API. (this is relevant for the mobile devices with LiDAR sensor)
• 100 m² up to 1000 m² or 10,000 sq ft and medium spaces are best captured with the Matterport Pro2 scanner and the Leica scanners.
• Spaces up to and beyond 30.000 m² or roughly 300,000 sq ft are of considerable size and best captured with NavVis scanners and the Leica RTC360. Such large spaces are in practice sliced into separate scans and processed individually for convenient authoring and better performance.

further links

https://library.vuforia.com/creating-area-targets/vuforia-area-target-creator-app

https://library.vuforia.com/creating-area-targets/area-target-generator-user-guide

[randerson-3]

Thank you for the response, Roland.

I believe you cannot combine targets for Vuforia Studio if I understand what I have read before, I think it's only for Unity.

It would be great if the other more robust scanners that the Matterport were supported in Studio. Right now our plan will be to take many scans of the area with multiple views and switch between them.

I still wonder if the newest iOS devices have benefits over the old ones (that also have lidar).