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Apple's new API can control motorised tripods and stands for subject tracking YOU WILL LEARN How DockKit can be used for action videos and photography Key fact Most recent iPads have Ultra Wide cameras that provide 122° field of view (FOV). Belkin has made other motorised stands in the past, but the Auto-Tracking Stand Combining APIs for one vision The DockKit API can tell the difference between human figures and animals, and can focus on a primary subject within a scene that may contain several different people. An inference can tell the difference between a human body or an animal such as a cat or dog.
Apple's new API can control motorised tripods and stands for subject tracking
YOU WILL LEARN
How DockKit can be used for action videos and photography Key fact Most recent iPads have Ultra Wide cameras that provide 122° field of view (FOV). The Centre Stage feature can follow you around within that 122° viewing angle, but will lose sight of you if you move beyond that. In contrast, DockKit is designed to rotate a motorised stand through a full 360° horizontally, and also to tilt the camera through 90° vertically as well.
Dfew years ago, Apple came up with a feature called Centre Stage, which allows FaceTime and other video apps to follow your movements and keep your face in focus if you need to move around during video calls. This is useful if you need to give some sort of presentation or demonstration during a video call, for teachers giving lectures, or for content creators, such as fitness instructors producing workout videos.
Centre Stage does have some limitations, though. At the moment, Centre Stage only works with the Ultra Wide front-facing camera that's built into certain iPad models, as well as the webcam that is built into Apple's Studio Display. There is a workaround for the iPhone that involves using it with the Continuity Camera feature in macOS Ventura, but the iPhone doesn't currently have full support for Centre Stage as the iPad does. And while that camera may have a very wide field of vision, it is still fixed in place, so it will eventually lose sight of you if you move too far to one side.
DockKit kit
It is possible to buy attachments that will let you mount an iPad or iPhone on a tripod so that you adjust the angle of the camera yourself, and you can even buy motorised tripods and stands that can be controlled by an app so that they turn automatically when reguired. However, that locks you into using products from specific manufacturers, such as the Matterport range of tripods, which are aimed at professional photographers and business users and reguire the use of the subscription-based Matterport app. There are some less expensive motorised tripods that are aimed at vloggers and content creators, but all these products still rely on being controlled by the manufacturer's own app, which may not provide all the features that you need and may not be compatible with other video apps such as FaceTime or Zoom.
To solve this, Apple recently came up with a solution called DockKit, which is specifically designed to allow an iPhone to control a motorised tripod or stand. DockKit was introduced - rather guietly - during some of the developer sessions at last year's WWDC, and hasn't really attracted much attention so far. However, Belkin (belkin.com) recently launched the first DockKit-compatible motorised stand at this year's CES, called the Auto-Tracking Stand Pro (£169.99), and gave us a demo. The Stand Pro can work on its own, just sitting on your desk and acting as a stand for the iPhone, but it can also be used to attach the iPhone to a tripod, and has a five-hour rechargeable battery for outdoor use as well. Belkin has made other motorised stands in the past, but the Auto-Tracking Stand
Combining APIs for one vision
The DockKit API can tell the difference between human figures and animals, and can focus on a primary subject within a scene that may contain several different people. However, DockKit can also be used in conjunction with another API, called Vision, that uses machine learning to analyse your video recordings in much greater detail.
As well as detecting human or animal figures within a scene, the Vision API can focus on 19 different joints in the human body and can recognise a variety of different poses, such as a footballer kicking a ball. It can even detect 'landmarks' on the human face or on a human hand that indicate specific facial expressions or hand gestures. When it was first launched in 2020, Vision only worked in 2D, but has now been updated so that it can also capture 3D data relating to a person's body and movement. Again, this is something that should become more important with the new spatial computing features that are a key part of Apple's new Vision Pro headset.
Pro is the first one to support DockKit, so keep an eye out for DockKit on the features list for any motorised stands that you might think about buying in the future.
Making a stand
Rather than relying on a specific app, DockKit is an API (application programming interface) that is part of the underlying iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 operating system. This means that DockKit works automatically with the standard Camera app on your iPhone, and also allows other developers and manufacturers to guickly update their own apps to work with DockKit as well. Just remember that the motorised tripod or stand that you use will also need to work with DockKit as well.
Like Centre Stage, DockKit can automatically track you as you move around, so that it always keeps you in focus and in the centre of the frame. But, of course, a motorised stand can move freely and isn't limited by the camera's field of vision (FOV). This means that DockKit can control the motorised stand and easily turn the iPhone camera to follow you wherever you move. This will be handy if you
DockKit can also use machine learning to anticipate the trajectory of moving objects need to stand up or sit down during a presentation, or for sports videos that involve people hurling themselves around on a sports pitch. A motorised stand that supports DockKit can also include additional controls, such as an indicator light that tells you when you are in the frame, so that you know when you can start talking. You can even switch between the front and rear cameras on the iPhone, depending on which one you want to use. Developers can also use an Al feature - which Apple tends to refer to as ML, or machine learning - called an 'inference' to control their apps. An inference can tell the difference between a human body or an animal such as a cat or dog. And, if there are several people in the frame, DockKit can even focus on one primary subject, and follow that specific person even while other people may be moving around within the scene. DockKit can also use machine learning to anticipate the trajectory of moving objects, allowing it to smoothly control the movement of the motorised stand in order to avoid blurry or jerky video recordings. Belkin's Stand Pro is the first DockKit-compatible stand that we've come across, but it fits in well with Apple's current emphasis on spatial video and spatial computing, so we can expect to hear more about DockKit following the launch of Apple's new Vision Pro headset. Cliff Joseph
Key fact
DockKit is part of iOS 17 andiPadOS17, so it will work with any iPhone or iPad running the latest version of those operating systems. It also works with Mac Catalyst, the programming tool that allows developers to create Mac versions of their existing iPad apps. This might allow you to sit at your Mac and control the movement of your iPhone camera using your mouse or trackpad.
Copyright Future Publishing Ltd Apr 2024