Apple released RoomPlan – one of the most productive AR room-mapping tools

Apple Quietly Released One of The Most Impressive AR Room-mapping Tools – Apple has barely mentioned augmented or virtual reality in its big keynotes lately, however at WWDC 2022 earlier this month, the company quietly released probably one of the best 3D room-mapping tools for mobile AR yet.

Follow along as I do a series of structured @Apple RoomPlan tests and share my findings/notes in this thread.

First up, I tried tricking RoomPlan with a large mirror. Surprisingly it wasn’t fooled! Also, it was way off on french doors height.#WWDC22 #AR #ARKit #AI @Scobleizer pic.twitter.com/R4hJbO57Km

— Jonathan Stephens (@jonstephens85) June 7, 2022

Called RoomPlan, the ARKit Swift API uses the camera and LiDAR scanner on recent iPhones and iPads to create a 3D floor plan of a room, including key characteristics such as dimensions and types of furniture.

Launched at WWDC 2022, RoomPlan is an augmented reality technology that sought to help collect data about a room and its contents.

In a dedicated Apple Developer page, the company touted the RoomPlan API as being useful in creating floor plans. These plans then can be applied directly in real estate and hospitality apps that require a deep knowledge of a building’s layout.

It’s not for consumers (yet) though. Apple says it’s aiming to appeal to professionals like architecture and interior designers for conceptual exploration and planning, as well as developers of real estate, e-commerce, or hospitality apps; developers can integrate RoomPlan directly into their AR-capable apps.

When it was released earlier this month, Jonathan Stephens, Chief Evangelist at spatial computing company EveryPoint, took RoomPlan for a test drive to see what it could do. The results are pretty surprising.

RoomPlan seems to be able to deal with a number of traditionally difficult situations, including the mirror seen above, but also messy spaces, open and closed doors, windows, and generally complex architecture. Still, Stephens’ house isn’t just a bunch of cube-shaped rooms, so there’s a few bits that just didn’t match up.

Vaulted ceilings, wall openings, multifloor areas like you might find in foyers were all a bit too difficult for RoomPlan to correctly digest. Although not perfect, it seems to at least autocorrect to some degree based on some assumptions of how things might best fit together.

RoomPlan isn’t just for app integrations though. Apple says it outputs in USD or USDZ file formats which include dimensions of each component recognized in the room, such as walls or cabinets, as well as the type of furniture detected.