Controlling iPhones from Mac Studio

[spflanze (Stephen Pflanze)]

The need is to control the cameras, and LIDAR, on up to four iPhone 14 Pros from at Mac Studio they are connected to. The data from the iPhones is to be uploaded from the iPhone 14s to the MacStudio for processing. What I need help with is:

1. How can the iPhone 14s connected to MacStudio be enumerated on the Mac Studio to know how many there, are and their communication handles?

2. How can the camera application that takes the photos, and the other that takes LIDAR data, be communicated with over the Lighting Cables to send commands from the Mac Studio, and to transfer the image, and lidar, data files?

1 The iPhones will have to route commands sent over lighting cables from the Mac Studio to the appropriate application for camera, and LIDAR. What is the best way to do this routing?

To save time I will be basing the software on the iPhones on these sample projects which I will modify to meet the project's needs:

AVCam: Building a Camera App | Apple Developer Documentation

Capturing depth using the LiDAR camera | Apple Developer Documentation

Parameters I need to directly control from the Mac Studio are exposure times, F stops, which of the iPhones will flash. Each connected iPhone's camera must be triggered as simultaneously as possible.

I am very new to Swift, and OSX. I have read the Swift manual, and done the iOS App Dev Tutorials.

[xwu (Xiaodi Wu)]

Hi @spflanze,

This forum is meant to be focused on the Swift language itself. Questions about making apps that use Apple hardware features are way outside the scope here, particularly when it has nothing to do with what programming language you're using to do it. Apple's asked that folks use their developer forums to ask questions about their proprietary frameworks, and I'm sure you'll be able to find other avenues to develop your skills.

[tera]

For this question I'd invest in asking in several different places like stackoverflow, apple dev forums, and a few others. I'd also ask Apple DTS about the options available. Also note the bandwidth limitation of lightning API, and consider using wifi interface if its speed is quick enough for your needs.

A similar question here.

This product does something similar allowing connecting iPhone with a cable (and wifi) and using it as a camera on mac.

[tera]

Look at this excellent (as always) answer Quinn has provided just now.

Notice the important thing to check:

IMPORTANT It’s possible that this only works because of developer bits (the Mac having Xcode installed or the iPhone being in Developer Mode). I don’t have time to test this with a non-developer configuration. I encourage you try that for yourself.

So worth checking it on a non developer mode iPhone and Xcode-less mac. Just trashing Xcode might be not enough, I'd ask a friend with a Mac who had never installed Xcode.