TikTok regularly introduces new filters that allow users to transform faces and add fun effects to videos. And the latest addition uses one of the awning pieces that come with the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max last fall.
TikTok has added an augmented reality filter. And if you have one of the Pro 12 models of the iPhone 12, you can use the LiDAR sensor on the back of the phone to add additional reality effects to your clip. In this particular case, TikTok features a fun New Year’s Eve ball-fall effect that can appear in tracks shot with an iPhone 12 Pro.
It will apparently make this late New Year celebration a much more lonely party if you realize that only one segment of smartphone users will be able to use it. TikTok, one of the most popular video platforms in the world, tweeted that this filter is the first AR effect using LiDAR technology. Presumably this will not be the last.
AR effects are obviously nothing new for social media applications like TikTok, but LiDAR – or ‘light detection and switching’ – takes things to a whole new level.
LiDAR detects the presence of real-world objects by emitting waves that reflect physical objects and return to the sensor for detailed, accurate measurements. This allows LiDAR-based AR effects to interact with the world around them. In TikTok’s new filter, for example, a mass of glitter spills over the entire room covering objects.
In the case of the iPhone 12 Pro, the in-depth observation of LiDAR is used more than just enhancing filters and fun effects. It also helps to make the night portrait mode work better, and also helps to focus the camera. And this is the benefit of taking advantage of other programs that provide support for LiDAR.
TikTok is not the first platform to welcome filters with LiDAR technology. Snapchat only added filters that support it in October, and creators can build their own filters there. It remains to be seen whether these effects will eventually come to an Android device, or whether Android phone manufacturers will adopt LiDAR sensors, such as DigiTimes predicted a month ago.