Google’s project Tango will map the world around you
Google just announced project Tango which is a 5-inch Android smartphone equipped with Kinect like 3D sensors and other components to track motion and map your surroundings. The phone has Myriad 1 vision processor from Movidius, which allows for advanced motion and depth tracking without draining the battery too fast. This could enhance indoor navigation and immersive gaming, but the possibility are endless when it comes to Google.
Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group is the part of Google who built and designed this prototype phone. ATAP head Johnny Lee said that the prototype “strives to give mobile devices a human-like understanding of space and motion…enabling new and enhanced types of user experiences.” The device will only be used by 200 developers starting in March, but we could see a beta test like Google did with Google Glass.
This will be a limited run because it sounds like Google doesn’t know how it could use it at this point, but they want to gather data to see what could be done. The data it collects will be available via API, which can then be put into Android apps. The advance processing power, and all the advance gear packed into the tool could yield some great data if we could find a way to use it.
Tell us in the comments what you think about Project Tango!