10 votes

Is there a reason the iPad pro "scans" your house every minute?

My wife has an ipad pro, and we have a baby monitor. So I was watching the baby monitor and noticed that her ipad was also in view of the camera. What I also noticed is that her ipad seems to flash an infrared light every minute or so.

After some googling I think this is the lidar scanner, although I'm not 100% sure.

Anyway, does anyone know why her ipad is doing this? It feels pretty creepy that a device is scanning your house all the time. Normally you don't even notice, it's only when you view the iPad pro from a camera that also shows infrared.

Maybe I'm just a little paranoid, but it feels like a privacy violation.

6 comments

  1. [3]
    Wolf_359
    Link
    It's the face unlock feature and/or the attention/aware features.

    It's the face unlock feature and/or the attention/aware features.

    16 votes
    1. [2]
      eagle69
      Link Parent
      Thanks that makes sense, but does it really needs to do that? Whenever you pick up the device it will scan immediately right? This is something that seems to do it with some interval.

      Thanks that makes sense, but does it really needs to do that? Whenever you pick up the device it will scan immediately right? This is something that seems to do it with some interval.

      3 votes
  2. Omnicrola
    Link
    I suspect other comments are correct about the face unlock and awareness features. Just wanted to mention that I have multiple Android devices that do the same thing. If viewed through a camera...

    I suspect other comments are correct about the face unlock and awareness features. Just wanted to mention that I have multiple Android devices that do the same thing. If viewed through a camera the can pick up on some of the infrared spectrum, you can see the LED flash every few seconds when not in use. Doesn't necessarily make it less creepy, just that it's not limited to Apple.

    5 votes
  3. [2]
    Weldawadyathink
    Link
    Is it coming from the front-facing camera or the rear camera? And is it happeing when it is in use or when its turned off? If its from the front camera while in use, I am almost positive it is the...

    Is it coming from the front-facing camera or the rear camera? And is it happeing when it is in use or when its turned off? If its from the front camera while in use, I am almost positive it is the "Attention Aware" features. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102216

    3 votes
    1. eagle69
      Link Parent
      It's the front camera while the iPad screen is off. We use her ipad as a white noise machine to get the baby to sleep better.

      It's the front camera while the iPad screen is off. We use her ipad as a white noise machine to get the baby to sleep better.