Apple's AI research team has launched a new depth estimation model, Depth Pro, which has achieved significant breakthroughs in speed and accuracy. This model can generate a high-resolution 3D depth map from a single 2D image in 0.3 seconds without any camera metadata, and can capture fine details such as hair and vegetation, bringing innovation to fields such as augmented reality and autonomous driving. The editor of Downcodes will explain in detail the powerful functions of Depth Pro and the technical principles behind it.
Recently, Apple's AI research team released a new model called Depth Pro, which is a major breakthrough in the field of depth estimation! This model can quickly generate high-resolution 3D depth maps from a single 2D image. , and amazingly, it does not require any camera metadata, which is rare in previous technologies.

Depth Pro works very fast, generating depth maps in just 0.3 seconds . The model can create 2.25MP maps with excellent clarity, capturing even tiny details like hair and vegetation that other methods often miss. This means you can get detailed 3D scenes in real time, which is a boon to many industries.
For example, in augmented reality (AR) applications, virtual objects can be more accurately integrated with the real environment to improve user experience. In autonomous driving technology, vehicles can also more accurately perceive the surrounding environment and improve driving safety.

Behind this technology is an efficient multi-scale visual transformer architecture. The researchers said that this architecture can process the overall information and details of the image at the same time, making Depth Pro significantly improved in accuracy and speed. Compared with other models, Depth Pro performs particularly well at capturing fine details, clearly rendering animal hair and plant textures, bringing excellent visual effects.
What’s more worth mentioning is that Depth Pro can provide “absolute depth” estimates, which means it not only tells you the relative positions of objects, but also the actual distances.
This is important for many application scenarios, especially in virtual reality experiences that require high precision. In addition, Depth Pro adopts a "zero-shot learning" approach, which means that it can make accurate depth predictions without a specific data set. This is extremely adaptable, allowing it to be widely used in a variety of applications. image.

In order to let more people experience the charm of this technology, Apple decided to open source Depth Pro. The research team released relevant code and weights of pre-trained models on GitHub to encourage developers and researchers to explore and innovate. This will undoubtedly promote the rapid application and development of Depth Pro in multiple fields such as robotics and medical care.
With the launch of Pro, Apple once again demonstrated its strength in technological innovation in the field of AI. This new model not only improves machines' ability to perceive their environment, it is also expected to spark changes in multiple industries.
Project entrance: https://github.com/apple/ml-depth-pro
Highlight:
** Efficient depth estimation **: Depth Pro can generate high-resolution 3D depth maps in 0.3 seconds, which is extremely fast.
**Absolute depth capability**: It can not only provide relative position, but also accurately give actual distance, suitable for a variety of application scenarios.
** Open Source Sharing **: Apple makes Depth Pro open source to encourage developers to explore its application potential in different fields.
The open source of Depth Pro will greatly promote the development of depth estimation technology and is expected to bring breakthroughs in fields such as AR and autonomous driving. We look forward to more developers developing innovative applications based on Depth Pro. The editor of Downcodes will continue to pay attention to the subsequent development of this model.