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Why iPad 2 outperforms newer devices

By scott_a_ashton on Tue, 10/13/2015 - 23:34

Hi there.

My project is an app that requires recording physical distances from the camera. In doing so I've discovered large errors in the calibration of newer (retina?) devices (in another thread). It also means I've been able to compare quite a few devices head to head - and to my surprise the iPad 2 was the clear winner in terms of max tracking distance, physical accuracy, and stability.

Aside from physical distance issues in new devices, I would like to know why newer devices are not killing the iPad 2. The iPad Air 2 had slightly poorer performance than the iPad 2 which indicates you are not using even a fraction of the full power of these devices. I totally get that you downsample the texture from camera's frame buffer but it really looks like you are stymying the newer devices. I would have expected a huge maximum distance from the iPad Air 2 camera....no?

The following results were using a 15cm image target under ideal indoor conditions. My definition of stable measuring is that the AR measure had a variance of less than 1-2cm, which I tended to cap at 3m (which was sufficient for my needs). Max distance was simply measuring the maximum tracking distance regardless of stability.

Device	Stable Measurement Distance (m)	Max Distance (m)	Camera Resolution (Megapixels)
IPhone 4	2	3.5	5
iPhone 6	3	~5	8
iPad 2	3	6.8	0.92
iPad Mini	2.5	4.8	5
iPad 4	3	~6	5
iPad Air 2	3	>6	8

MODE : MAX_QUALITY

Vuforia 5.05

Unit 5.2

OS: various iOS 7.1 - 9.02

So my question is, am I better moving to something like ARToolkit where I have fine grain control over the AR pipeline?

Thanks

Scott