Here’s how Apple will limit access to cameras on the Vision Pro

2023-06-14 11:30:00

In the presentation of Apple Vision Pro, Apple has made it clear that third-party apps will not have access to the images captured by the device’s many cameras. Since most apps developed for iOS and iPadOS can be ported with almost no code changes to visionOS, what happens when an app requests access to the camera on the headset?

This doubt was clarified by the engineer John Markem one of the videos from WWDC23. According to him, there will be a different behavior in the headset precisely because of Apple’s concern to protect the user’s privacy. In Vision Pro, when an app requests access to the camera, it will find two sources: one for the front camera and one for the rear — as in other operating systems.

When the user grants access to the front camera data, however, the app will only have access to the “space person” generated with the help of the Vision Pro’s internal cameras, not the images captured by them. This will allow the user to make video calls using their “avatar” in third-party apps (such as Zoom). If the person has not yet “generated” a spatial representation, however, no image will be returned.

In the case of the rear camera, in turn, when the user grants access to it, the app will only receive a “black screen” with an icon indicating that there is no camera available. This will prevent third-party apps from using the camera to make 3D recordings or even to show someone the surrounding landscape during a call. Obviously, nothing will prevent the user from granting access to images that have already been recorded — permission that will be essential in editing apps, for example.

As David Heaney pointed out, in the UploadVRother applications may even implement APIsApplication programming interfacesor application programming interfaces.”>¹ from Apple to use the user’s real landscape for some purpose (such as calculating the area of ​​a surface or furniture, for example), but they will not effectively have access to the raw images generated by Vision Pro — as currently happens on iPhones and iPads.

But why doesn’t Apple just remove the option to access the rear camera, since apps won’t be granted access to any of the external cameras? Well, everything indicates that this was a kind of “gambiarra” used by the company precisely to guarantee the fluidity of apps that request access to the rear camera in other operating systems – which might simply “hang” if they did not find this option as a source in the headset.

Limiting access to the camera, it should be noted, is an approach similar to that adopted in other devices of the genre, such as Meta Quest, but we still do not know if it is definitive.

As noted by 9to5Macit’s nothing new for Apple to limit access to parts of the hardware in the initial generation of a product — which can end up happening when a device matures to the point where permission to access certain data does not compromise the user’s privacy.

1686743766
#Heres #Apple #limit #access #cameras #Vision #Pro