Apple reached out to select members of the press, offering them a chance to record Spatial Video via an iPhone 15 Pro so they could view their memories on the Apple Vision Pro.
Apple added the ability to record Spatial Video to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max as part of iOS 17.2. Spatial Video is stereoscopic video captured using multiple sensors. For the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, this involves the iPhone using both the Main and Ultra Wide cameras on the rear.
The video can be viewed on an Apple Vision Pro headset. It features a depth effect that creates a 3D-like experience as users move their heads.
Lance Ulanoff at Tech Radar said that while he didn’t feel as though he were actually inside the videos, the experience was immersive and exciting just the same. He notes that he felt as though his emotions were heightened while watching the videos.
“With my model train videos, the 3D spatial video effect reminded me of the possibly apocryphal tale of early cinema audiences who, upon seeing a film of an oncoming train, ran screaming from the theater,” he writes. “I wouldn’t say my video was that intense, but my model train did look like it was about to ride right into my lap.”
Mark Spoonaur at Tom’s Guide believes that the ability to view Spatial Video on the Apple Vision Pro would likely spur people to take more videos when documenting their lives.
“As I think about how I use my iPhone now, I can’t help be sucked in when my home screen shares photo memories, whether they be about my daughter before she went off to college or a collection of images and videos of our three dogs playing in the yard,” Spoonaur says in his article.
“The Apple Vision Pro will take that experience to the next level with spatial video, and I think it will actually encourage people to take more videos instead of just photos when documenting some of life’s most important moments.”
Cool Hunting’s Josh Rubin praised the integration of both audio and visual components when viewing the experience on the Vision Pro.
“The audio captured in my video recordings completed the spatial experience on the Vision Pro, and I had an incredibly accurate sense of where the sounds were coming from,” he notes.
Apple has previously allowed press to view Spatial Video, though the experience was under more controlled circumstances.
The Apple Vision Pro headset, due in early 2024, is priced to sell at a steep $3,499. While there’s no concrete launch date, rumors suggest that it could appear as soon as January.
