Google announced Project Tango, an Android-based prototype 5 inch phone, designed with aim to make our mobile devices function in 3D that contains customized hardware and software with 3D sensors to sense and capture the world around you. This experimental project is being developed by Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP), Motorola unit which Google didn't sell to Lenovo.
The goal of Futuristic Project Tango is to give smartphones a human-scale understanding of 3D space and motion and build a visual 3D map of space, revolutionizing the GPS maps
The device is equipped with standard 4MP camera paired with a special combination RGB and IR sensor , motion tracking camera at the rear, integrated depth sensing that could help the visually impaired "see" in front, a Movidius's Myriad 1 vision processor to bring Kinect-like computer vision to the smartphone, advanced 3D sensors plus usual components like as gyros and sensors, that are found in most smartphones. The combination of these hardware with advanced computer vision techniques can take 250,000 3D measurements every second and creates a real-time 3D map of phone's surroundings. Project Tango's application in future technology could be endless.
This phone will have applications ranging from 3D modeling to assisting the visually impaired
Imagine how cool it would be to have a 3D map of your house, and integrate this map as a backdrop into game development.
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| 3D mapping of a room with Tango smartphone |
These prototypes, of course, runs on Android and include development APIs to provide orientation, position, and depth data to standard Android apps written in Java, C/C++, as well as the Unity Game Engine.
Things as you can do with this phone
Google and ATAP is closely monitoring developers interested in developing: Applications, Games, Algorithms and Something Else using the prototypes.
You can have indoor mapping of the your place before heading out to buy furniture to see how a furniture would look and fit before buying it, which could make shopping trips easy and effective.
You can use 3D mapping to get directions inside a building or structure and avoid bumping on wrong doors as well as confusing 2D paper maps.
3D visual-effects world could be build and modelled in record time with little efforts.
Think about mapping your real walls in-game textures onto would be the game you'll love the most
Google says that indoor as well as outdoor mapping, single/multiplayer games which use physical space, new algorithms for processing sensor data could be hot topics to pursue.
Now its upon developers to innovate and think what to do with this phone. Google hopes to unlock new kinds of smart, vision-based applications based on its 3D sensing and vision technology that it has built into the phone.
Dev kits will be handed out this 14th March to around 200 developers, hand-picked by Google and the ATAP team themselves, interested in creating applications for the device. With futuristic combination of hardware and software, developers can create applications that simply weren’t possible before.
Via Google Here is ATAP’s introductory video of Project Tango
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