November 4, 2025
Ghosts in the FaceTime machine
Apple uses 3D Gaussian splatting for Personas and 3D conversions of photos
Apple’s $3,499 ghost avatars wow, skeptics say ‘just use a webcam’
TLDR: Apple’s Vision Pro now builds lifelike avatars and turns photos into immersive scenes using a new 3D photo method. Commenters split between awe and eye-rolls: some share demos and explainers, while skeptics roast the $3,499 price and say a cheap webcam is fine—future of meetings or pricey cosplay?
Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro now has “Personas” out of beta—realistic avatars scanned from your face and body, powered by a 3D photo technique called Gaussian splatting—think stitching flat photos into a walk-around 3D scene with AI. Apple execs appeared as ghost-like replicas, with sharper detail, jewelry, eyelashes sorted, and photos converted into immersive 3D scenes.
The comments? A war zone. One camp is dazzled by the wizardry: SomaticPirate calls it “an entirely new graphics pipeline,” dropping an explainer video. Film fans flex that Corridor Digital recreated The Matrix rooftop using similar tech clip, and others link a breakdown by Tested review. The other camp rolls its eyes: dangus says it’s “a solution looking for a problem,” comparing it to Segway vs scooters, and asks why pay thousands when a laptop webcam works.
Tantalor raises an eyebrow at the timing—“Now out of beta?? … just in time for Vision Pro to go big,” hinting Apple’s hype machine is revving. Reactions describe Personas as ghosts who FaceTime, and the “Walmart webcam” line became a clapback refrain. Underneath the jokes is a real debate: is hyper-real telepresence the next Zoom, or just expensive cosplay until it hits iPhone? The crowd is split.
Key Points
- •Apple’s Vision Pro Personas are now out of beta and create realistic avatars from 3D photo scans.
- •Apple executives Jeff Norris and Steve Sinclair explained that Personas use Gaussian splatting and multiple machine learning networks.
- •VisionOS supports collaboration among up to five Personas, sharing virtual spaces, objects, and apps, including remote participants.
- •Recent updates (VisionOS 26) improve multi-angle detail, capturing features like jewelry and eyelashes, and scan bodies and faces together.
- •Apple is applying Gaussian splatting to spatial 3D conversions of photos; related 3D scanning exists on Meta’s Quest and apps like Scaniverse and Polycam.