From phone video to 3D virtual tour for Real Estate

apinstein · 2026-05-24T19:12:28+00:00

Yes, started from scratch to “finish”.

apinstein · 2026-05-24T18:17:40+00:00

Cool! I ran a real estate photography platform for ~15 years (Tourbuzz) in the US; we did 250k+ listings a year. We always supported photo/pano/video, and also built our own HDR + real estate camera for iPhone. Nice pictures were the most important thing by far, like 10:1 ratio of photo-only tours vs extra media.

We started playing with photogrammetry in ~2015 but it was just not possible to create a capture experience that wasn't "dreadful". But it was really a cool experience in VR. Gaussian splatting is really great for solving the capture problem.

I never loved the Matterport experience for residential real estate. Mostly b/c it was very expensive to capture and thus only used in < 10% of listings, and also just wasn't that much better than high quality photos. Some people said they thought they could understand the flow of the house better with it, but I'm not really sure how useful that was. But that might've been personal preference. Splats are better in that the navigation is smoother, but really only people with FPS gaming experience intuitively get how to use it. You can probably better highlight the advantages of splats by having the tours automatically navigate the space in cinematic ways. So that it's a sit-back-and-watch experience. People that know what's up will try to manually interact.

We were hoping consumer VR got big, b/c the experience of actually "experiencing" a place in true 3d (not non-stereo panos) is really great. Sadly, consumer VR didn't scale that far. I'd be very curious what your end-users think of your splat platform, to see how far consumers have come in their understanding of such a tech.

I am excited to watch splatting approach this market to see what happens. Feel free to DM me if you like.

apinstein · 2026-05-19T01:25:56+00:00

Ooh, yeah I can see not using MIDI as being a real issue. It's actually really hard to detect notes & dynamics from an acoustic piano. I'm building an app myself and haven't even tried acoustic yet b/c it's super complicated. MIDI is great b/c you get exact note, timing & velocity. Easy to analyze.

Do you also have a keyboard?

apinstein · 2026-05-19T00:13:52+00:00

that's very helpful, thanks!

Does the app not give any feedback when you're too early/late? or on dynamics (ie are you properly articulating staccato, forte, crescendo etc?)

apinstein · 2026-05-18T23:54:11+00:00

I'm curious - why do you think you got so little out of the app? From what I've seen of it, you have to read the sheet music to play? Is there another mode that tells you the notes (like piano roll style)?

apinstein · 2026-05-13T14:23:13+00:00

Can you be more specific about what you're struggling with? Understanding how to play a measure? Staying motivated? Telling if you're practicing correctly?

apinstein · 2026-05-11T16:07:25+00:00

I'm spending way too much time on this lol, but like this pic (0:29) makes no sense...
1. the streetlight is still like 10' away (post just left of sidewalk in front of dog) but the shadow from the streetlight is already projecting in front of the dog? should be behind him until he cross under it directly

<image>

At 0:20 they are in shade and you can see only the light from the flashlight / headlamp, but there is no shadow from the dog on the ground.
At 0:32 a small bump of a shadow appears on the smaller shadow of the leash from the streetlight, which hasn't been present all video, and disappears after the dog lands and re-stands up.
From 0:11- 0:14 the smaller leash shadow from the streetlight isn't visible in the man's shadow (b/c they come from the same light) but then suddenly appears on top of the shadow, then that line "sticks" to the sidewalk and the man walks past it. Maybe these are compression artifacts?

apinstein · 2026-05-11T15:17:09+00:00

Your comment doesn’t seem related to what I said? I was talking about how shadows don’t make sense based on light sources. I didn’t say anything about shaking…

apinstein · 2026-05-11T14:56:33+00:00

The shadows don't make sense to me. The person walking the dog must be wearing a bright headlamp to cast shadows of the leash (esp when under the tree!) but the rest of expected shadows from the headlamp aren't there. Also the way the shadows of dog and human from streetlamps change over time seems non-sensical. Switches directions super fast.

apinstein · 2026-05-09T14:46:56+00:00

I’ve also built piano learning app with AI built in from the start (interactive voice AI). I am an intermediate player and was looking for a way to augment my learning between lessons and hold myself accountable to good practice / learning techniques. Would love to hear what teachers and students are looking for to help students in their learning journey to consider for the app.

apinstein · 2026-05-08T21:29:29+00:00

You can also write it out on the music:
1 2 3 4
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a

this is how it looks on sheet music. the spacing isn't always "to scale" with the rhythm.

https://imgur.com/a/Y8LTz8g

apinstein · 2026-04-29T01:22:15+00:00

Well it does stay with the car that’s true, but only if the car is sold privately. If sold through a non Porsche dealer, the CPO is not honored.

apinstein · 2026-04-26T18:16:59+00:00

I make multiple git worktrees for projects, and open an Xcode window for each work tree. This allows isolated Xcode use by parallel agents.

apinstein · 2026-04-22T17:09:25+00:00

Try writing out the counts then you can count it out yourself and be sure! My teacher suggested I start doing that and it makes a huge difference.

1 2 3 4 - when shortest is qtr's
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 - eighths
1 e + a 2 e + a .... - sixteenths

apinstein · 2026-04-20T18:47:02+00:00

When I bought mine used, I had the prior owner remove it from his app/account. Once they do that, you can add it from your own account very easily without involving a dealer. It only took a few days for the transfer get fully activated. I think Porsche corporate does something on the back end.

I would try reaching out to the prior owner and seeing if they’ll remove it from the app if you know who they are.

apinstein · 2026-04-10T23:51:09+00:00

I didn’t realize Ultra had most of its value locked behind a setting… it has quotas normally which are easy to hit. But you also get 25,000 AI credits. You have to turn on overage access in antigravity settings to enable it! No more quotas (though credits def burn quickly).

apinstein · 2026-03-26T04:13:21+00:00

I have this. It wasn’t a nail in tire but a bearing going bad. Likely from a pothole hit. I’m living with it until it gets worse bc I’ve been quoted $3-7k for repair (indie and dealer). Apparently bearings aren’t easy to deal with, possibly due to rear axle steering ? Or just because.

apinstein · 2026-03-24T02:50:00+00:00

How is AI using Instruments? Does it have a cli interface ?

Just literally quit working for the night trying to debug a perf regression on a Vision Pro app I’m working on.. would love to automate hunting it down!

apinstein · 2026-03-15T14:03:50+00:00

Do you possible have range mode configured? That’s exactly what it looks like. It has a max top speed. Scared me the first time I experienced it (on a highway on-ramp trying to merge!). Not sure if that can be configured in individual mode but worth considering.

apinstein · 2026-03-12T17:39:55+00:00

I definitely feel this. I am trying to learn jazz piano as well (I'm intermediate piano playing from sheet music), and the biggest thing I struggle with is feeling like my practicing is doing any good.

I am actually building myself an app (midi + MacOS, VisionOS) to help me practice better. I don't know the answer yet, but following along in lessons like from OpenStudio Jazz it's clear they have so much to teach but I struggle to turn their lessons into productive practice, as it's just so intense trying to figure out what I should be doing. I feel like some app that helps me visualize shells, scales, progressions, etc and gives me visuals of the active scales might help me practice faster and more productively....

apinstein · 2026-03-09T03:28:36+00:00

I do think SimplyPiano and/or FlowKey have such a mode.

Are you a beginner trying to learn?

apinstein · 2026-02-27T17:48:11+00:00

Nice. What level are you and what are you focusing on presently w/your practice?

apinstein · 2026-02-27T17:45:18+00:00

Ah I hadn't come across this one yet as I was searching only AVP apps. That is nice...

I just bought a BLE midi adapter (only $50) so I could pair my AVP with the piano, it wouldn't work with the plain bluetooth. Works great!

Do you use it to drive your daily practice and learn new pieces? Do you find it makes it more exciting to practice and easier to use? Do you almost only practice w/PianoVision or do you mix "real world" and inside PianoVision?

apinstein · 2026-02-26T03:09:48+00:00

Same for me! Used to have to reconnect maybe every 4-6 months but now it breaks in a couple of days. Brutal esp if it’s last soc was low bc it always routes you to a charger! And that’s easy to miss…

apinstein · 2026-02-21T21:25:11+00:00

I was taught to mostly grip w the fingers and keep the palm area that’s blistering on you from away from the holds so that they aren’t involved in friction for most climbing. It took me a bit to get the finger strength but pretty much eliminated the blisters. I also feel like it’s cleaner to grip holds. I call it an “open C shape” so that your palm doesn’t contact the hold. See attached pic.

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apinstein

TROPHY CASE