Yes, we can measure a person just by taking a photo of them

Sometimes the most useful and surprising features of our devices go unnoticed. Among the many capabilities that Apple integrates into our iPhones and iPads, there is one that deserves our attention: the ability to measure a person’s height just by pointing the camera at them. Just as we can remove objects from a photo on our iPhone or edit a photo with the photographic styles of the iPhone 16 and give it a personal touch, thanks to the LiDAR sensor present in the most recent models, it allows us to obtain a surprisingly accurate and quick measurement directly from the Measure app.

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A little-known feature of the Measures app

The Measure app has been helping us interact with our environment for years, whether it’s to measure furniture, distances, or any object we have in sight. Additionally, there is a somewhat hidden feature that, with a couple of taps, allows us to measure the height of any person with surprising ease.

We need, of course, the LiDAR sensor included in devices like the iPhone 12 Pro or later and the 2020 or later iPad Pro, which allows creating a three-dimensional map of the environment with great precision. The result? We can measure distances of up to 4 meters with a level of detail that is astonishing.

The best part is that we don’t need to do anything complicated: we simply open the Measure app, focus on the person we want to measure, and after a couple of seconds, a line appears at the top of their head with their exact height. If we want to save that measurement, we can take a photo that will include the superimposed data.

How does this technology really work?

The secret of the apparent magic of this function lies in the LiDAR sensor, a component that measures the time it takes for a pulse of light to reflect off objects in the environment. With this information, our device generates a three-dimensional map of the scene in front of the camera.

In the case of measuring a person’s height, this system automatically detects the body’s contours and the head’s position, accurately calculating the distance from the ground to the top of the head. All of this happens in a matter of seconds and, thanks to Apple’s algorithms, the results are accurate to the centimeter in good lighting conditions.

This type of detail is what turns our devices into increasingly useful tools. Many times, we forget they are there until we need them, but when we discover what they can do, they surprise us.

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Whether to measure ourselves quickly, to see if the new TV will fit in its location, to align a picture hanging on the wall, or simply to be able to tell the little ones at home “how you’ve grown!” this function is another one on the list of small details that make our devices more and more useful.

Thus, the next time someone asks us if we know how long it is, we can take out our iPhone and respond accurately. No tricks, no waiting, just with technology that, when well-designed, simply amazes.