WebXR Depth Sensing Module

W3C Working Draft,

More details about this document
This version:
https://www.w3.org/TR/2024/WD-webxr-depth-sensing-1-20240923/
Latest published version:
https://www.w3.org/TR/webxr-depth-sensing-1/
Editor's Draft:
https://immersive-web.github.io/depth-sensing/
Previous Versions:
History:
https://www.w3.org/standards/history/webxr-depth-sensing-1/
Feedback:
GitHub
Editor:
(Google)
Participate:
File an issue (open issues)
Mailing list archive
W3C’s #immersive-web IRC

Abstract

Depth Sensing API is a module extending the capabilities of WebXR Device API. It enables apps to obtain depth information computed by supported XR devices in order to provide more immersive experiences. The example use cases of depth sensing API include (but are not limited to) simulating physical interactions of virtual objects with the real world, occlusion, and non-visual applications that can make use of increased awareness of users' environment.

Status of this document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.

The Immersive Web Working Group maintains a list of all bug reports that the group has not yet addressed. This draft highlights some of the pending issues that are still to be discussed in the working group. No decision has been taken on the outcome of these issues including whether they are valid. Pull requests with proposed specification text for outstanding issues are strongly encouraged.

This document was published by the Immersive Web Working Group as a Working Draft using the Recommendation track. This document is intended to become a W3C Recommendation.

Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by W3C and its Members. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

This document was produced by a group operating under the W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

This document is governed by the 03 November 2023 W3C Process Document.

1. Introduction

As Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality becomes more prevalent, new features are being introduced by the native APIs that enable accessing more detailed information about the environment in which the user is located. Depth Sensing API brings one such capability to WebXR Device API, allowing authors of WebXR-powered experiences to obtain information about the distance from the user’s device to the real world geometry in the user’s environment.

This document assumes readers' familiarity with WebXR Device API and WebXR Augmented Reality Module specifications, as it builds on top of them to provide additional features to XRSessions.

1.1. Terminology

This document uses the acronyms AR to signify Augmented Reality, and VR to signify Virtual Reality.

This document uses terms like "depth buffer", "depth buffer data" and "depth data" interchangably when referring to an array of bytes containing depth information, either returned by the XR device, or returned by the API itself. More information about the specific contents of the depth buffer can be found in data and texture entries of the specification.

This document uses the term normalized view coordinates when referring to a coordinate system that has an origin in the top left corner of the view, with X axis growing to the right, and Y axis growing downward.

2. Initialization

2.1. Feature descriptor

The applications can request that depth sensing be enabled on an XRSession by passing an appropriate feature descriptor. This module introduces new string - depth-sensing, as a new valid feature descriptor for depth sensing feature.

A device is capable of supporting the depth sensing feature if the device exposes native depth sensing capability. The inline XR device MUST NOT be treated as capable of supporting the depth sensing feature.

The depth sensing feature is subject to feature policy and requires "xr-spatial-tracking" policy to be allowed on the requesting document’s origin.

2.2. Intended data usage and data formats

enum XRDepthUsage {
  "cpu-optimized",
  "gpu-optimized",
};
enum XRDepthDataFormat {
  "luminance-alpha",
  "float32",
  "unsigned-short",
};

The following table summarizes the ways various data formats can be consumed:

Data format GLenum value equivalent Size of depth buffer entry Usage on CPU Usage on GPU
"luminance-alpha" LUMINANCE_ALPHA 2 times 8 bit Interpret data as Uint16Array Inspect Luminance and Alpha channels to reassemble single value.
"float32" R32F 32 bit Interpret data as Float32Array Inspect Red channel and use the value.
"unsigned-short" R16UI 16 bit Interpret data as Uint16Array Inspect Red channel and use the value.

2.3. Session configuration

dictionary XRDepthStateInit {
  required sequence<XRDepthUsage> usagePreference;
  required sequence<XRDepthDataFormat> dataFormatPreference;
};

The usagePreference is an ordered sequence of XRDepthUsages, used to describe the desired depth sensing usage for the session.

The dataFormatPreference is an ordered sequence of XRDepthDataFormats, used to describe the desired depth sensing data format for the session.

The XRSessionInit dictionary is expanded by adding new depthSensing key. The key is optional in XRSessionInit, but it MUST be provided when depth-sensing is included in either requiredFeatures or optionalFeatures.

partial dictionary XRSessionInit {
  XRDepthStateInit depthSensing;
};

If the depth sensing feature is a required feature but the application did not supply a depthSensing key, the user agent MUST treat this as an unresolved required feature and reject the requestSession(mode, options) promise with a NotSupportedError. If it was requested as an optional feature, the user agent MUST ignore the feature request and not enable depth sensing on the newly created session.

if the depth sensing feature is a required feature but the result of finding supported configuration combination algorithm invoked with usagePreference and dataFormatPreference is null, the user agent MUST treat this as an unresolved required feature and reject the requestSession(mode, options) promise with a NotSupportedError. If it was requested as an optional feature, the user agent MUST ignore the feature request and not enable depth sensing on the newly created session.

When an XRSession is created with depth sensing enabled, the depthUsage and depthDataFormat attributes MUST be set to the result of finding supported configuration combination algorithm invoked with usagePreference and dataFormatPreference.

In order to find supported configuration combination for depth sensing API given usagePreference and dataFormatPreference sequences, the user agent MUST run the following algorithm:
  1. Let selectedUsage be null.

  2. Initialize selectedUsage as follows:

    If the usagePreference sequence is empty
    Initialize selectedUsage to the device’s preferred native depth sensing capability.
    Otherwise
    For each usage in usagePreference sequence, perform the following steps:
    1. If usage is not considered a supported depth sensing usage by the native depth sensing capabilities of the device, continue to the next entry.

    2. Set selectedUsage to usage and abort these nested steps.

  3. If selectedUsage is null, return null and abort these steps.

  4. Let selectedDataFormat be null.

  5. Initialize selectedDataFormat as follows:

    If the usagePreference sequence is empty
    Initialize selectedDataFormat to the device’s preferred native depth sensing format.
    Otherwise
    For each dataFormat in dataFormatPreference, perform the following steps:
    1. If selectedUsage,dataFormat is not considered a supported depth sensng usage and data format combination by the native depth sensing capabilities of the device, continue to the next entry.

    2. Set selectedDataFormat to dataFormat and abort these nested steps.

  6. If selectedDataFormat is null, return null and abort these steps.

  7. Return selectedUsage,selectedDataFormat.

Note: user agents are not required to support all existing combinations of usages and data formats. This is intended to allow them to provide data in an efficient way, and depends on the underlying platforms. This decision places additional burden on the application developers - it could be mitigated by creation of libraries hiding the API complexity, possibly sacrificing performance.

The user agent that is capable of supporting the depth sensing API MUST support at least one XRDepthUsage mode. The user agent that is capable of supporting the depth sensing API MUST support "luminance-alpha" data format, and MAY support other formats.

The following code demonstrates how a session that requires depth sensing API could be requested. The example assumes that the caller is able to handle both CPU- and GPU-optimized usage, as well as both "luminance-alpha" and "float32" formats, preferring CPU and "luminance-alpha":
const session = await navigator.xr.requestSession("immersive-ar", {
  requiredFeatures: ["depth-sensing"],
  depthSensing: {
    usagePreference: ["cpu-optimized", "gpu-optimized"],
    dataFormatPreference: ["luminance-alpha", "float32"],
  },
});
partial interface XRSession {
  readonly attribute XRDepthUsage depthUsage;
  readonly attribute XRDepthDataFormat depthDataFormat;
};

The depthUsage describes depth sensing usage with which the session was configured. If this attribute is accessed on a session that does not have depth sensing enabled, the user agent MUST throw an InvalidStateError.

The depthDataFormat describes depth sensing data format with which the session was configured. If this attribute is accessed on a session that does not have depth sensing enabled, the user agent MUST throw an InvalidStateError.

3. Obtaining depth data

3.1. XRDepthInformation

[SecureContext, Exposed=Window]
interface XRDepthInformation {
  readonly attribute unsigned long width;
  readonly attribute unsigned long height;

  [SameObject] readonly attribute XRRigidTransform normDepthBufferFromNormView;
  readonly attribute float rawValueToMeters;
};

The width attribute contains width of the depth buffer (i.e. number of columns).

The height attribute contains height of the depth buffer (i.e. number of rows).

The normDepthBufferFromNormView attribute contains a XRRigidTransform that needs to be applied when indexing into the depth buffer. The transformation that the matrix represents changes the coordinate system from normalized view coordinates to normalized depth buffer coordinates that can then be scaled by depth buffer’s width and height to obtain the absolute depth buffer coordinates.

Note: if the applications intend to use the resulting depth buffer for texturing a mesh, care must be taken to ensure that the texture coordinates of the mesh vertices are expressed in normalized view coordinates, or that the appropriate coordniate system change is peformed in a shader.

The rawValueToMeters attribute contains the scale factor by which the raw depth values from a depth buffer must be multiplied in order to get the depth in meters.

Each XRDepthInformation has an associated view that stores XRView from which the depth information instance was created.

Each XRDepthInformation has an associated depth buffer that contains depth buffer data. Different XRDepthInformations may store objects of different concrete types in the depth buffer.

When attempting to access the depth buffer of XRDepthInformation or any interface that inherits from it, the user agent MUST run the following steps:

  1. Let depthInformation be the instance whose member is accessed.

  2. Let view be the depthInformation’s view.

  3. Let frame be the view’s frame.

  4. If frame is not active, throw InvalidStateError and abort these steps.

  5. If frame is not an animationFrame, throw InvalidStateError and abort these steps.

  6. Proceed with normal steps required to access the member of depthInformation.

3.2. XRCPUDepthInformation

[Exposed=Window]
interface XRCPUDepthInformation : XRDepthInformation {
  [SameObject] readonly attribute ArrayBuffer data;

  float getDepthInMeters(float x, float y);
};

The data attribute contains depth buffer information in raw format, suitable for uploading to a WebGL texture if needed. The data is stored in row-major format, without padding, with each entry corresponding to distance from the view's near plane to the users' environment, in unspecified units. The size of each data entry and the type is determined by depthDataFormat. The values can be converted from unspecified units to meters by multiplying them by rawValueToMeters. The normDepthBufferFromNormView can be used to transform from normalized view coordinates into depth buffer’s coordinate system. When accessed, the algorithm to access the depth buffer MUST be run.

Note: Applications SHOULD NOT attempt to change the contents of data array as this can lead to incorrect results returned by the getDepthInMeters(x, y) method.

The getDepthInMeters(x, y) method can be used to obtain depth at coordinates. When invoked, the algorithm to access the depth buffer MUST be run.

When getDepthInMeters(x, y) method is invoked on an XRCPUDepthInformation depthInformation with x, y, the user agent MUST obtain depth at coordinates by running the following steps:

  1. Let view be the depthInformation’s view, frame be view’s frame, and session be the frame’s session.

  2. If x is greater than 1.0 or less than 0.0, throw RangeError and abort these steps.

  3. If y is greater than 1.0 or less than 0.0, throw RangeError and abort these steps.

  4. Let normalizedViewCoordinates be a vector representing 3-dimensional point in space, with x coordinate set to x, y coordinate set to y, z coordinate set to 0.0, and w coordinate set to 1.0.

  5. Let normalizedDepthCoordinates be a result of premultiplying normalizedViewCoordinates vector from the left by depthInformation’s normDepthBufferFromNormView.

  6. Let depthCoordinates be a result of scaling normalizedDepthCoordinates, with x coordinate multiplied by depthInformation’s width and y coordinate multiplied by depthInformation’s height.

  7. Let column be the value of depthCoordinatesx coordinate, truncated to an integer, and clamped to [0, width-1] integer range.

  8. Let row be the value of depthCoordinatesy coordinate, truncated to an integer, and clamped to [0, height-1] integer range.

  9. Let index be equal to row multiplied by width & added to column.

  10. Let byteIndex be equal to index multiplied by the size of the depth data format.

  11. Let rawDepth be equal to a value found at index byteIndex in data, interpreted as a number accordingly to session’s depthDataFormat.

  12. Let rawValueToMeters be equal to depthInformation’s rawValueToMeters.

  13. Return rawDepth multiplied by rawValueToMeters.

partial interface XRFrame {
  XRCPUDepthInformation? getDepthInformation(XRView view);
};

The getDepthInformation(view) method, when invoked on an XRFrame, signals that the application wants to obtain CPU depth information relevant for the frame.

When getDepthInformation(view) method is invoked on an XRFrame frame with an XRView view, the user agent MUST obtain CPU depth information by running the following steps:

  1. Let session be frame’s session.

  2. If depth-sensing feature descriptor is not contained in the session’s XR device's list of enabled features for session’s mode, throw a NotSupportedError and abort these steps.

  3. If frame’s active boolean is false, throw an InvalidStateError and abort these steps.

  4. If frame’s animationFrame boolean is false, throw an InvalidStateError and abort these steps.

  5. If frame does not match view’s frame, throw an InvalidStateError and abort these steps.

  6. If the session’s depthUsage is not "cpu-optimized", throw an InvalidStateError and abort these steps.

  7. Let depthInformation be a result of creating a CPU depth information instance given frame and view.

  8. Return depthInformation.

In order to create a CPU depth information instance given XRFrame frame and XRView view, the user agent MUST run the following steps:

  1. Let result be a new instance of XRCPUDepthInformation.

  2. Let time be frame’s time.

  3. Let session be frame’s session.

  4. Let device be the session’s XR device.

  5. Let nativeDepthInformation be a result of querying device for the depth information valid as of time, for specified view, taking into account session’s depthUsage and depthDataFormat.

  6. If nativeDepthInformation is null, return null and abort these steps.

  7. If the depth buffer present in nativeDepthInformation meets user agent’s criteria to block access to the depth data, return null and abort these steps.

  8. If the depth buffer present in nativeDepthInformation meets user agent’s criteria to limit the amount of information available in depth buffer, adjust the depth buffer accordingly.

  9. Initialize result’s width to the width of the depth buffer returned in nativeDepthInformation.

  10. Initialize result’s height to the height of the depth buffer returned in nativeDepthInformation.

  11. Initialize result’s normDepthBufferFromNormView to a new XRRigidTransform, based on nativeDepthInformation’s depth coordinates transformation matrix.

  12. Initialize result’s data to the raw depth buffer returned in nativeDepthInformation.

  13. Initialize result’s view to view.

  14. Return result.

The following code demonstrates how depth data can be obtained within XRFrameRequestCallback. It is assumed that the session that has depth sensing enabled, with usage set to "cpu-optimized" and data format set to "luminance-alpha":
const session = ...;          // Session created with depth sensing enabled.
const referenceSpace = ...;   // Reference space created from the session.

function requestAnimationFrameCallback(t, frame) {
  session.requestAnimationFrame(requestAnimationFrameCallback);

  const pose = frame.getViewerPose(referenceSpace);
  if (pose) {
    for (const view of pose.views) {
      const depthInformation = frame.getDepthInformation(view);
      if (depthInformation) {
        useCpuDepthInformation(view, depthInformation);
      }
    }
  }
}

Once the XRCPUDepthInformation is obtained, it can be used to discover a distance from the view plane to user’s environment (see § 4 Interpreting the results section for details). The below code demonstrates obtaining the depth at normalized view coordinates of (0.25, 0.75):

function useCpuDepthInformation(view, depthInformation) {
  const depthInMeters = depthInformation.getDepthInMeters(0.25, 0.75);
  console.log("Depth at normalized view coordinates (0.25, 0.75) is:",
    depthInMeters);
}

3.3. XRWebGLDepthInformation

[Exposed=Window]
interface XRWebGLDepthInformation : XRDepthInformation {
  [SameObject] readonly attribute WebGLTexture texture;

  readonly attribute XRTextureType textureType;
  readonly attribute unsigned long? imageIndex;
};

The texture attribute contains depth buffer information as an opaque texture. Each texel corresponds to distance from the view's near plane to the users' environment, in unspecified units. The size of each data entry and the type is determined by depthDataFormat. The values can be converted from unspecified units to meters by multiplying them by rawValueToMeters. The normDepthBufferFromNormView can be used to transform from normalized view coordinates into depth buffer’s coordinate system. When accessed, the algorithm to access the depth buffer of XRDepthInformation MUST be run.

The textureType attribute describes if the texture is of type TEXTURE_2D or TEXTURE_2D_ARRAY.

The imageIndex attribute returns the offset into the texture array. It MUST be defined when textureType is equal to TEXTURE_2D_ARRAY and MUST be undefined if it’s TEXTURE_2D.

partial interface XRWebGLBinding {
  XRWebGLDepthInformation? getDepthInformation(XRView view);
};

The getDepthInformation(view) method, when invoked on an XRWebGLBinding, signals that the application wants to obtain WebGL depth information relevant for the frame.

When getDepthInformation(view) method is invoked on a XRWebGLBinding binding with an XRView view, the user agent MUST obtain WebGL depth information by running the following steps:

  1. Let session be binding’s session.

  2. Let frame be view’s frame.

  3. If session does not match frame’s session, throw an InvalidStateError and abort these steps.

  4. If depth-sensing feature descriptor is not contained in the session’s XR device's list of enabled features for session’s mode, throw a NotSupportedError and abort these steps.

  5. If the session’s depthUsage is not "gpu-optimized", throw an InvalidStateError and abort these steps.

  6. If frame’s active boolean is false, throw an InvalidStateError and abort these steps.

  7. If frame’s animationFrame boolean is false, throw an InvalidStateError and abort these steps.

  8. Let depthInformation be a result of creating a WebGL depth information instance given frame and view.

  9. Return depthInformation.

In order to create a WebGL depth information instance given XRFrame frame and XRView view, the user agent MUST run the following steps:

  1. Let result be a new instance of XRWebGLDepthInformation.

  2. Let time be frame’s time.

  3. Let session be frame’s session.

  4. Let device be the session’s XR device.

  5. Let nativeDepthInformation be a result of querying device’s native depth sensing for the depth information valid as of time, for specified view, taking into account session’s depthUsage and depthDataFormat.

  6. If nativeDepthInformation is null, return null and abort these steps.

  7. If the depth buffer present in nativeDepthInformation meets user agent’s criteria to block access to the depth data, return null and abort these steps.

  8. If the depth buffer present in nativeDepthInformation meets user agent’s criteria to limit the amount of information available in depth buffer, adjust the depth buffer accordingly.

  9. Initialize result’s width to the width of the depth buffer returned in nativeDepthInformation.

  10. Initialize result’s height to the height of the depth buffer returned in nativeDepthInformation.

  11. Initialize result’s normDepthBufferFromNormView to a new XRRigidTransform, based on nativeDepthInformation’s depth coordinates transformation matrix.

  12. Initialize result’s texture to an opaque texture containing the depth buffer returned in nativeDepthInformation.

  13. Initialize result’s view to view.

  14. Initialize result’s textureType as follows:

    If the result’s texture was created with a textureType of texture-array:
    Initialize result’s textureType to "texture-array".
    Otherwise
    Initialize result’s textureType to "texture".
  15. Initialize result’s imageIndex as follows:

    If textureType is texture
    Initialize result’s imageIndex to null.
    Else if view’s eye is "right"
    Initialize result’s imageIndex to 1.
    Otherwise
    Initialize result’s imageIndex to 0.
  16. Return result.

The following code demonstrates how depth data can be obtained within XRFrameRequestCallback. It is assumed that the session that has depth sensing enabled, with usage set to "gpu-optimized" and data format set to "luminance-alpha":
const session = ...;          // Session created with depth sensing enabled.
const referenceSpace = ...;   // Reference space created from the session.
const glBinding = ...;        // XRWebGLBinding created from the session.

function requestAnimationFrameCallback(t, frame) {
  session.requestAnimationFrame(requestAnimationFrameCallback);

  const pose = frame.getViewerPose(referenceSpace);
  if (pose) {
    for (const view of pose.views) {
      const depthInformation = glBinding.getDepthInformation(view);
      if (depthInformation) {
        useGpuDepthInformation(view, depthInformation);
      }
    }
  }
}

Once the XRWebGLDepthInformation is obtained, it can be used to discover a distance from the view plane to user’s environment (see § 4 Interpreting the results section for details). The below code demonstrates how the data can transferred to the shader:

const gl = ...;             // GL context to use.
const shaderProgram = ...;  // Linked WebGLProgram.
const programInfo = {
  uniformLocations: {
    depthTexture: gl.getUniformLocation(shaderProgram, 'uDepthTexture'),
    uvTransform: gl.getUniformLocation(shaderProgram, 'uUvTransform'),
    rawValueToMeters: gl.getUniformLocation(shaderProgram, 'uRawValueToMeters'),
  }
};

function useGpuDepthInformation(view, depthInformation) {
  // ...

  gl.bindTexture(gl.TEXTURE_2D, depthInformation.texture);
  gl.activeTexture(gl.TEXTURE0);
  gl.uniform1i(programInfo.uniformLocations.depthTexture, 0);

  gl.uniformMatrix4fv(
    programInfo.uniformLocations.uvTransform, false,
    depthData.normDepthBufferFromNormView.matrix);

  gl.uniform1f(
    programInfo.uniformLocations.rawValueToMeters,
    depthData.rawValueToMeters);

  // ...
}

The fragment shader that makes use of the depth buffer can be for example:

precision mediump float;

uniform sampler2D uDepthTexture;
uniform mat4 uUvTransform;
uniform float uRawValueToMeters;

varying vec2 vTexCoord;

float DepthGetMeters(in sampler2D depth_texture, in vec2 depth_uv) {
  // Depth is packed into the luminance and alpha components of its texture.
  // The texture is a normalized format, storing millimeters.
  vec2 packedDepth = texture2D(depth_texture, depth_uv).ra;
  return dot(packedDepth, vec2(255.0, 256.0 * 255.0)) * uRawValueToMeters;
}

void main(void) {
  vec2 texCoord = (uUvTransform * vec4(vTexCoord.xy, 0, 1)).xy;

  float depthInMeters = DepthGetMeters(uDepthTexture, texCoord);

  gl_FragColor = ...;
}

4. Interpreting the results

The values stored in data and texture represent distance from the camera plane to the real-world-geometry (as understood by the XR system). In the below example, the depth value at point a = (x, y) corresponds to the distance of point A to the camera plane. Specifically, the depth value does NOT represent the length of aA vector.

Depth API data explanation

The above image corresponds to the following code:

// depthInfo is of type XRCPUDepthInformation:
const depthInMeters = depthInfo.getDepthInMeters(x, y);

5. Native device concepts

5.1. Native depth sensing

Depth sensing specification assumes that the native device on top of which the depth sensing API is implemented provides a way to query device’s native depth sensing capabilities. The device is said to support querying device’s native depth sensing capabilities if it exposes a way of obtainig view-aligned depth buffer data. The depth buffer data MUST contain buffer dimensions, the information about the units used for the values stored in the buffer, and a depth coordinates transformation matrix that performs a coordinate system change from normalized view coordinates to normalized depth buffer coordinates. This transform should leave z coordinate of the transformed 3D vector unaffected.

The device can support depth sensing usage in 2 ways. If the device is primarily capable of returning the depth data through CPU-accessible memory, it is said to support "cpu-optimized" usage. If the device is primarily capable of returning the depth data through GPU-accessible memory, it is said to support "gpu-optimized" usage.

Note: The user agent can choose to support both usage modes (e.g. when the device is capable of providing both CPU- and GPU-accessible data, or by performing the transfer between CPU- and GPU-accessible data manually).

The device can support depth sensing data format given depth sensing usage in the following ways. If, given the depth sensing usage, the device is able to return depth data as a buffer containing 16 bit unsigned integers, it is said to support the "luminance-alpha" or "unsigned-short" data format. If, given the depth sensing usage, the device is able to return depth data as a buffer containing 32 bit floating point values, it is said to support the "float32" data format.

The device is said to support depth sensing usage and data format combination if it supports depth sensing usage and supports depth sensing data format given the specified usage.

Note: the support of depth sensing API is not limited only to hardware classified as AR-capable, although it is expected that the feature will be more common in such devices. VR devices that contain appropriate sensors and/or use other techniques to provide depth buffer should also be able to provide the data necessary to implement depth sensing API.

The device MUST have a preferred native depth sensing capability that MUST be used if the usagePreference array is empty, and a preferred native depth sensing format that MUST be used if the dataFormatPreference array is empty. The capability and format SHOULD reflect the most efficient ones of the device.

6. Privacy & Security Considerations

The depth sensing API provides additional information about users' environment to the websites, in the format of depth buffer. Given a depth buffer with sufficiently high resolution, and with sufficiently high precision, the websites could potentially learn more detailed information than the users are comfortable with. Depending on the underlying technology used, the depth data may be created based on camera image and IMU sensors.

In order to mitigate privacy risks to the users, user agents should seek user consent prior to enabling the depth sensing API on a session. In addition, as the depth sensing technologies & hardware improve, the user agents should consider limiting the amount of information exposed through the API, or blocking access to the data returned from the API if it is not feasible to introduce such limitations. To limit the amount the information, the user agents could for example reduce the resolution of the resulting depth buffer, or reduce the precision of values present in the depth buffer (for example by quantization). User agents that decide to limit the amount of data in such way will still be considered as implementing this specification.

In case the user agent is capable of providing depth buffers that are detailed enough that they become equivalent to information provided by the device’s cameras, it must first obtain user consent that is equivalent to consent needed to obtain camera access.

Changes

Changes from the First Public Working Draft 31 August 2021

7. Acknowledgements

The following individuals have contributed to the design of the WebXR Depth Sensing specification:

Conformance

Document conventions

Conformance requirements are expressed with a combination of descriptive assertions and RFC 2119 terminology. The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in the normative parts of this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119. However, for readability, these words do not appear in all uppercase letters in this specification.

All of the text of this specification is normative except sections explicitly marked as non-normative, examples, and notes. [RFC2119]

Examples in this specification are introduced with the words “for example” or are set apart from the normative text with class="example", like this:

This is an example of an informative example.

Informative notes begin with the word “Note” and are set apart from the normative text with class="note", like this:

Note, this is an informative note.

Conformant Algorithms

Requirements phrased in the imperative as part of algorithms (such as "strip any leading space characters" or "return false and abort these steps") are to be interpreted with the meaning of the key word ("must", "should", "may", etc) used in introducing the algorithm.

Conformance requirements phrased as algorithms or specific steps can be implemented in any manner, so long as the end result is equivalent. In particular, the algorithms defined in this specification are intended to be easy to understand and are not intended to be performant. Implementers are encouraged to optimize.

Index

Terms defined by this specification

Terms defined by reference

References

Normative References

[INFRA]
Anne van Kesteren; Domenic Denicola. Infra Standard. Living Standard. URL: https://infra.spec.whatwg.org/
[RFC2119]
S. Bradner. Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. March 1997. Best Current Practice. URL: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2119
[WEBGL-2]
Dean Jackson; Jeff Gilbert. WebGL 2.0 Specification. 12 August 2017. URL: https://www.khronos.org/registry/webgl/specs/latest/2.0/
[WEBIDL]
Edgar Chen; Timothy Gu. Web IDL Standard. Living Standard. URL: https://webidl.spec.whatwg.org/
[WEBXR]
Brandon Jones; Manish Goregaokar; Rik Cabanier. WebXR Device API. 21 August 2024. CR. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/webxr/
[WEBXRLAYERS-1]
Rik Cabanier. WebXR Layers API Level 1. 10 May 2024. WD. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/webxrlayers-1/

Informative References

[WEBXR-AR-MODULE-1]
Brandon Jones; Manish Goregaokar; Rik Cabanier. WebXR Augmented Reality Module - Level 1. 2 November 2022. CR. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/webxr-ar-module-1/

IDL Index

enum XRDepthUsage {
  "cpu-optimized",
  "gpu-optimized",
};

enum XRDepthDataFormat {
  "luminance-alpha",
  "float32",
  "unsigned-short",
};

dictionary XRDepthStateInit {
  required sequence<XRDepthUsage> usagePreference;
  required sequence<XRDepthDataFormat> dataFormatPreference;
};

partial dictionary XRSessionInit {
  XRDepthStateInit depthSensing;
};

partial interface XRSession {
  readonly attribute XRDepthUsage depthUsage;
  readonly attribute XRDepthDataFormat depthDataFormat;
};

[SecureContext, Exposed=Window]
interface XRDepthInformation {
  readonly attribute unsigned long width;
  readonly attribute unsigned long height;

  [SameObject] readonly attribute XRRigidTransform normDepthBufferFromNormView;
  readonly attribute float rawValueToMeters;
};

[Exposed=Window]
interface XRCPUDepthInformation : XRDepthInformation {
  [SameObject] readonly attribute ArrayBuffer data;

  float getDepthInMeters(float x, float y);
};

partial interface XRFrame {
  XRCPUDepthInformation? getDepthInformation(XRView view);
};

[Exposed=Window]
interface XRWebGLDepthInformation : XRDepthInformation {
  [SameObject] readonly attribute WebGLTexture texture;

  readonly attribute XRTextureType textureType;
  readonly attribute unsigned long? imageIndex;
};

partial interface XRWebGLBinding {
  XRWebGLDepthInformation? getDepthInformation(XRView view);
};

MDN

XRCPUDepthInformation/data

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRCPUDepthInformation/getDepthInMeters

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRCPUDepthInformation

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRDepthInformation/height

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRDepthInformation/normDepthBufferFromNormView

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRDepthInformation/rawValueToMeters

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRDepthInformation/width

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRDepthInformation

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRFrame/getDepthInformation

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRSession/depthDataFormat

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRSession/depthUsage

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRWebGLBinding/getDepthInformation

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRWebGLDepthInformation/texture

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

XRWebGLDepthInformation

In only one current engine.

FirefoxNoneSafariNoneChrome90+
Opera?Edge90+
Edge (Legacy)?IENone
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebViewNoneSamsung Internet?Opera Mobile?