Professional Scanner vs Smartphone LiDAR
A phone with a LiDAR sensor produces a 3D model of a room in a minute. It is useful for a sketch. It is not a measurement.
The difference is not the picture on the screen — it is whether the number you read from it can be stated, cited and defended.
No sensitive case details required.
Can a smartphone LiDAR scan be used as forensic evidence?
Not as a measurement. Phone sensors are centimetre-class with no published accuracy specification or calibration; professional scanners state 0.05–0.1 mm handheld and 1.9 mm at 10 m on a tripod, and that figure is what an expert cites.
How they compare
Compared on what a cross-examiner will ask about.
| Professional scanner (Artec Leo, Spider II, Ray II)Purpose-built measuring instruments. | Smartphone LiDARA consumer depth sensor with an app. | |
|---|---|---|
| Stated accuracy | Yes: 0.05–0.1 mm handheld, 1.9 mm at 10 m tripod | None published; centimetre-class in practice |
| Detail | 0.2 mm resolution, 0.1 mm accuracy on evidence and bodies | Coarse; no fine detail |
| Range | Arm's length to 130 m, by device | A few metres |
| Calibration and traceability | Calibrated devices, stated conditions | None |
| Raw data and history | Raw scans and processing kept in the project | App-dependent; often a mesh only |
| Choose this when | The measurement. Defensible because the figure is stated and the method documented. | A quick sketch or an orientation aid. Not evidence. |
A phone scan is fine for a briefing. The moment a number from it matters, it is the wrong tool.
Where the phone stops being evidence
Smartphone LiDAR has made everyone a 3D scanner owner, and for orientation it is genuinely useful: a quick model of a room to brief a team is better than a sketch. The problem starts when someone reads a distance from it. Consumer depth sensors have no published accuracy specification, no calibration, and drift over anything larger than a small room. Results vary by app, by lighting and by how the phone was moved. The raw data is usually not retained.
A professional scanner is a measuring instrument. Artec Leo states up to 0.1 mm point accuracy, Spider II 0.05 mm, Ray II 1.9 mm at 10 metres — figures measured under stated conditions on calibrated devices. Artec Studio keeps the raw scans and the processing history. When an expert is asked "how accurate is that?", there is an answer.
The practical rule is simple. If the model is for orientation, a phone is fine. If any number from it will be stated in a report or a courtroom, it needs to come from a device with a specification.
See a phone scan and a professional scan of the same object, measured side by side — book a demo.
Book a demoQuestions practitioners ask
Is phone LiDAR getting good enough?
It is getting better at what it does — quick, approximate models. It has no stated accuracy, no calibration and no traceability, and those are the properties evidence requires, not the resolution of the picture.
Can we use a phone scan at all?
For orientation, briefing and planning, yes. Not as a source of any measurement that will be stated.
What does "stated accuracy" mean?
A figure the manufacturer publishes, measured under stated conditions on a calibrated device — the figure an expert cites and the opposing expert tests.
Is a professional handheld much harder to use?
Leo has a screen and processes onboard, so capture is learned in a day. What it adds is not complexity but a specification.
Tell us about the work you do
A forensic application specialist will come back with the device that fits it, the accuracy to expect at that scale, and how the data reaches your existing workflow.