{"slug": "apple-s-3d-processing-tricks-are-getting-impressive-i-want-more", "title": "Apple's 3D Processing Tricks Are Getting Impressive. I Want More", "summary": "Apple's iOS 27, launching later this year, introduces a new photo-editing mode that uses Gaussian splatting AI to turn still images into shiftable 3D scenes, allowing users to change the angle and have the environment repaint around it. The feature, demonstrated at Apple's WWDC 2026, builds on the same technology used for Vision Pro Persona avatars and 3D Maps, signaling Apple's gradual expansion of spatial computing tools into mainstream photography. The move points toward a future where photos and videos become scannable, immersive worlds, though Apple has yet to integrate Gaussian splatting directly into its camera app.", "body_md": "The most dazzling magic trick in [iOS 27](/tech/services-and-software/apple-wwdc-ios-27-announcement/), coming later this year, is a [new photo-editing mode](/tech/services-and-software/apple-spatial-reframing-generative-ai-as-a-photographer/) that's like something out of Blade Runner. With a glimmer, a still shot becomes shiftable. You can turn the angle, and the picture becomes 3D. You can change the shot a bit, and the environment repaints around it.\n\nAs a VR/AR device wearer for years, and someone who spends a lot of time in [Apple Vision Pro](/tech/computing/apple-visionos-wwdc-2026/), I nodded when I saw the reveal at [Apple's WWDC 2026](/tech/mobile/apple-wwdc26-everything-announced-ios-macos/) developer event. I can see the threads. This feature is flexing 3D tools that Apple's already been playing with for a while now, expanding them outward in fascinating ways. And like with that 3D-tilted spatially reframed shot, which I'm now trying on my own photos on iOS 27's developer beta, I want to see what else is around the bend.\n\nIt's about more than just editing photos, I think. A lot more.\n\n## A step towards scannable worlds\n\nThe toolset Apple's using to make these 3D effects happen, called Gaussian splatting, is exactly the same AI model that makes my body [become a 3D Persona avatar](/tech/computing/apple-talks-to-me-about-vision-pro-personas-where-is-our-virtual-presence-headed/) on Vision Pro headsets, and what makes Apple Maps now show remarkably clearer 3D maps. It's a technology I've seen emerging for years now, that already turns 3D objects and environments (and even videos) into shockingly convincing walkthrough worlds.\n\nApps on Vision Pro already showcase Gaussian splats that cover entire city blocks captured and converted into incredible worlds. I [presented a Polys Award](https://thepolys.com/) for some of the best of them this winter, in fact. (You can explore the award-winning [Pfarrkirche Kefermarkt splat](https://arrival.space/64122763_2334), screenshot below, to see a beautiful example.) Meta's Quest headsets [can scan your space](/tech/computing/metas-quest-headsets-can-scan-your-home-into-vr-the-results-are-stunning/) and create 3D walkable replicas using the tech, too, to stunning effect.\n\nTo me, it represents the very future of where photography and videos are headed, and the way we can represent our memories. But for Apple, that tech hasn't emerged into its own camera app... yet.\n\nApple is slow-playing Gaussian splatting in its own tech, introducing it in thoughtful and various ways. This year at WWDC, Apple showcased it in Spatial Reframing on iOS, plus a new [panorama photo conversion tool](/tech/computing/apple-visionos-wwdc-2026/) on the Vision Pro that turns previously shot panoramas into wraparound 3D environments you can then do your work in, and revamped 3D Maps views that haven't made an immersive move into any Vision Pro mode, although Google's 3D Maps were what wowed me the most on [Samsung's Galaxy XR](/tech/computing/circle-to-search-in-real-life-standout-features-and-big-questions-for-samsung-and-googles-xr-headset/) headset, released last year.\n\n## Pieces forming around the edges\n\nI [talked to Apple's Vision team last year](/tech/computing/apple-talks-to-me-about-vision-pro-personas-where-is-our-virtual-presence-headed/) about Personas on the Vision Pro, when Apple first discussed its use of Gaussian splatting as the secret sauce in making these impressive facial captures happen. Apple's using the same Gaussian splatting models in the new iOS 27/VisionOS 27 features this time around, but to new effect.\n\nSpatial reframing, to me, is very much like a more interactive version of the spatial scenes that photos could be transformed into last year, and seen in impressive head-tilting 3D on the Vision Pro (or by tilting your phone back and forth). It also has similar limits, in that you can't actually go that deep into a photo, or truly turn everything around. It's a gradual range of angles, created by AI generating what could be there behind someone a bit, or just out of range.\n\nThe freedom to re-pin a new angle and make that permanent, though, is new, and that level of control gives a bit more of that feeling I get when I step into full-3D Gaussian splat captures.\n\nOf course, bigger scans need more photos to knit together. That could be Apple's next trick, since developers are already doing it elsewhere.\n\nI'd love a way for multiple photos of a place to be knit by Apple into a whole scene, or recreate a space I can walk in. The panorama conversion tool in VisionOS 27 now, which I haven't tried yet, almost gets there. It wraps a photo around and makes it that surrounding experience, minus the walking.\n\nI think it's coming. But Apple [needs immersive glasses](/tech/computing/hey-siri-youre-the-framework-for-apples-smart-glasses-now/) or headsets that are actually affordable first, and Apple doesn't even have any smart glasses expected until next year -- those models might not even have displays onboard to start. But the $3,500 Vision Pro headsets could easily do full-room scans in ways that Apple could handle with its own apps. And iPhones could evolve its camera tools too.\n\nEventually, it's going to be the future of what immersive video and photos truly mean. And right now, we're getting little peeks of it all in plain sight.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-s-3d-processing-tricks-are-getting-impressive-i-want-more", "canonical_source": "https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/apples-3d-processing-tricks-are-getting-more-impressive-i-want-more/", "published_at": "2026-06-11 13:01:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-11 18:43:05.927820+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["computer-vision", "generative-ai", "ai-products", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Apple", "iOS 27", "Apple Vision Pro", "WWDC 2026", "Gaussian splatting", "Apple Maps", "Blade Runner"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-s-3d-processing-tricks-are-getting-impressive-i-want-more", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-s-3d-processing-tricks-are-getting-impressive-i-want-more.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-s-3d-processing-tricks-are-getting-impressive-i-want-more.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-s-3d-processing-tricks-are-getting-impressive-i-want-more.jsonld"}}