AR Planes — tdlidar_planes

A live “how much of the room have I mapped?” meter — fire a cue the moment enough floor or wall has been detected.

Category: Camera & Vision · Tier: Free · Needs: ARKit (LiDAR device recommended for fast plane detection)

What it does

As the phone looks around, ARKit finds flat surfaces — floors, walls, tables — and grows them into planes. This op streams two running totals: how many planes have been found, and their combined area in square metres. Together they make a simple progress signal: the more the performer scans, the higher the numbers climb. Use it to know when the room is “mapped enough” to start.

OSC in

address type range rate
/tdlidar/scene/plane_count float number of detected planes on change / low Hz
/tdlidar/scene/plane_area_m2 float total plane area, square metres on change / low Hz

Outputs

out1 (CHOP) with channels tdlidar/scene/plane_count and tdlidar/scene/plane_area_m2.

Parameters

par default what it does
OSC Port 9000 UDP port to listen on (match the app)

Quick start (beginner)

  1. In the app, enable AR Planes and start streaming. Slowly pan the phone across the floor/walls.
  2. Drop the AR Planes op. Confirm OSC Port is 9000.
  3. Watch tdlidar/scene/plane_area_m2 climb as more surface is detected.
  4. Wire plane_area_m2 through a Math/Range CHOP (e.g. 0→20 m² mapped to 0→1) into a progress bar TOP, or onto a Text TOP via a CHOP to DAT to read the live count.

Advanced patterns

  • “Room ready” trigger. A Logic CHOP (or Trigger CHOP) on plane_area_m2 > threshold fires a one-shot pulse when enough surface exists — use it to auto-advance from a “scanning…” screen to the live show.
  • Progress meter. Range CHOP the area into 0–1 and drive a radial/linear progress visual so the audience sees the room filling in.
  • Stabilise the count. plane_count can wobble as ARKit merges/splits planes; a Lag CHOP or a small >= Logic with hysteresis stops a flickering trigger.
  • Combine with AR Mesh. Pair plane area with tdlidar_armesh face counts for a richer “scan completeness” estimate than either alone.

Gotchas

  • These are cumulative totals, not per-surface data — you get how much, not which planes or where. For geometry, that’s the Mesh / Scene Build path.
  • plane_count can go down when ARKit merges two planes into one; don’t assume it only rises. Threshold on area for stability.
  • Updates are low-rate / on-change, so don’t expect smooth 60 Hz motion — treat it as a slow meter, not an animation source.