Film the object and LDO combines your iPhone's camera and ARKit motion tracking to calculate its trajectory, speed, G-forces, illumination and position — then tells you, with the numbers to back it up, what it probably is.
Every sighting runs through the same analysis chain, from choosing a mode to the final verdict.
A dark sky with a point of light, or a clear sky with a backlit silhouette? LDO doesn't run the same detection in both cases — you tell it which one before filming.
A single button starts full-resolution HD recording — no settings to fiddle with while the object is still in the sky.
Afterwards, select the 2-second clip to analyze — the full video stays untouched so you can watch it back in full.
Night mode: a brightness threshold that adapts frame by frame to isolate the brightest point in the sky. Day mode: detects the darkest silhouette against the sky. Continuous tracking tells the real object apart from noise or hand shake.
On-screen position is converted into a real direction in the sky using the phone's pose (ARKit), so LDO calculates an actual flight path — not just a pixel shift.
LDO shows a percentage — always capped at 90%, never absolute certainty — and, just as importantly, the list of factors behind it, so you can judge for yourself.
Every video you capture feeds all the analyses below at the same time.
Detects direction changes, estimates the G-forces involved compared against human tolerance, and flags left-right zigzag paths that no known aircraft performs.
Average and maximum speed; a speed 2 to 3 times faster than an F-35 (~1,960 km/h) is flagged as beyond the reach of known aviation.
A variable flicker is atypical of a known light source; a steady, continuous light points more toward a spotlight or navigation light.
Recognizes the sound signatures of aircraft, helicopters, birds, and insects.
No LiDAR (its range is too short for a distant aerial object): distance and altitude are estimated by triangulation, always with a visible confidence score.
Your iPhone's position at the moment of capture is shown on a map, with latitude and longitude, to pin down where the sighting happened.
A wide shot, an automatic maximum zoom enhanced to show the target clearly, and a fixed ×2 zoom — saved with the video to your device and iCloud.
The full user guide and the math behind every number shown on screen.
On the capture screen, choose Night or Day depending on the scene.
One button starts HD recording. The full video is automatically saved to Photos and to "My Recordings" — no analysis starts yet.
From "My Recordings" (a LIVE capture, with camera pose data) or from the Library tab (imported from Photos).
Move the trim window to the sharpest moment — only that clip is sampled for analysis.
An animated radar and a real progress bar (by completed step, not a guess) accompany the nine calculations, entirely on your device.
3 cropped photos, a map of the capture location, every measurement, and the verdict with its factors. "New capture" resets the app for the next sighting.
Night: a brightness threshold recalculated on every frame, halfway between the background sky and the brightest point — catches a point that's only moderately bright, not just blinding sources. Day: the same idea inverted, on the darkest silhouette in the sky.
threshold = average + 0.5 × (max − average)Every on-screen position is converted into a real 3D direction in the sky using the camera's pose (ARKit) at the exact moment of detection — a movement of your arm doesn't count as a movement of the object.
Based on a plausible real-world size for the detected shape and the angle it occupies in frame. Always shown with a confidence score — never presented as a certain measurement.
Without a reliable distance, LDO shows "not calculable" rather than a made-up number. Maximum speed is compared against known aircraft, up to an F-35 (~1,960 km/h).
v (km/h) = distance (m) × angular velocity (rad/s) × 3.6Color temperature approximated from the average hue of the light source (bluish-white ≈ LED, orange ≈ sun reflection), plus detection of a variable flicker versus a steady output.
Unidentified shape, out-of-norm G-forces or acceleration, an irregular or zigzag trajectory, extreme speed, flickering, no identified sound: every factor that applies is listed on screen. The final percentage is always capped at 90% — never certainty.
Nobody can measure the distance of a far-away aerial object with certainty without dedicated instruments — so LDO doesn't pretend otherwise: every distance is an estimate from angular triangulation, never a direct measurement.
Download LDO and keep an (assisted) eye on the sky.
Download on theApp Store