Apple announces the framework 'Nearby Interaction' that uses the 'U1 chip' of iPhone 11 that can grasp the coordinates with a few centimeters error

The iPhone 11/11 Pro/11 Pro Max released in 2019 has a U1 chip, which enables ultra-wideband wireless (UWB) technology, which is also applied to military radar, for spatial recognition and highly accurate coordinate tracking. It has become. Apple has announced a new framework, NearbyInteraction, that makes this UWB technology available to third-party app developers.

Apple Developer Documentation
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/nearbyinteraction

'Nearby Interactions' framework gives developers access to the U1 chip | Appleinsider
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/06/23/nearby-interactions-framework-gives-developers-access-to-the-u1-chip

The U1 chip is a chip that can grasp the coordinates of the iPhone with ultra-high accuracy of only a few centimeters error using UWB communication. You can understand what the U1 chip is like by reading the following article.

It is attracting attention that the coordinate measurement accuracy of the ``U1 chip'' mounted on the iPhone 11 is a transcendent high performance of ``error several centimeter level''-GIGAZINE

UWB communication by this U1 chip was used only for locating the device in AirDrop at the time of article creation, but Near Interaction will allow developers to use this UWB communication in applications. Nearby Interaction is compatible with iOS 14.0 or later, macOS 11.0 or later, Mac Catalyst 14.0 or later, and it seems that it can be used in the beta version of the newly released integrated development environment 'Xcode 12'.

In addition, Apple is 'augmented reality (AR) experience of throwing water balloons in the virtual world', 'improving matching accuracy of dispatch service by accurately grasping driver's and passenger's position' 'directly moving iPhone Another example is an application of Near Interaction, such as ' Pong- like games that you can operate and play against.'

Media that deals with news related to Apple productsAppleinsider points out that UBW communication by U1 chip can be applied to the lost article tracker ' AirTag ' which is reported to be under development by Apple. In addition, the `` Find My '' function that was announced at WWDC 2019 in 2019 and can locate the position even with an offline terminal by forming a Bluetooth network will improve accuracy by introducing UWB communication technology with U1 chip. It is expected to improve further.

However, the U1 chip is not included in the 2nd generation iPhone SE and 4th generation iPad Pro released in 2020. According to Apple, Near Interaction has some restrictions. For example, in order to perform UWB communication by U1 chip between two devices, both devices need to be oriented vertically, and obstacles such as walls and people may interfere with UWB communication.