Comprehending the world around us is something we humans take for granted, but it’s not so easy for our technology.
Google is experimenting smartphone and developer kit that incorporates 3D sensors able to map indoor and outdoor environments. Designed as a 5-inch phone containing custom hardware and software, the first Project Tango prototype makes more than a quarter million 3D measurements each second, tracking three-dimensional motion to create a visual 3D map of the space around itself.
Project Tango devices contain customized hardware and software designed to track the full 3D motion of the device, while simultaneously creating a map of the environment. These sensors allow the device to make over a quarter million 3D measurements every second, updating its position and orientation in real-time, combining that data into a single 3D model of the space around you.
They run Android and include development APIs to provide position, orientation, and depth data to standard Android applications written in Java, C/C++, as well as the Unity Game Engine. These early prototypes, algorithms, and APIs are still in active development. So, these experimental devices are intended only for the adventurous and are not a final shipping product.
Google primarily is building a mapping tool that automatically captures the world around each user to provide directions, dimensions, and environmental maps.
The prototype tablet that Google has build has a 1080p display and runs a stock version of Android 4.4 KitKat, but what’s most important is the oomph under the hood: NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra K1 chip alongside 4GB of RAM and 128GB internal storage (microSD cards are not supported). That’s in addition to USB 3.0, micro-HDMI, Bluetooth LE and LTE (availability will depend on carrier, but Google isn’t announcing which frequencies are supported just yet).
Google’s plan is to utilize a vision processor called the Myriad 1, from Movidius, which is incredibly power efficient compared to other 3D-sensing chips on the market.
PrimeSense developed the technology used in Microsoft’s original Kinect and went on to create motion-sensing mobile chips capable of scanning an environment in full 3D. PrimeSense imagined the technology could be used for interactive gaming, indoor mapping, and more, much like Project Tango.
What could one do with it?
What if you could capture the dimensions of your home simply by walking around with your phone before you went furniture shopping? What if directions to a new location didn’t stop at the street address? What if you never again found yourself lost in a new building? What if the visually-impaired could navigate unassisted in unfamiliar indoor places? What if you could search for a product and see where the exact shelf is located in a super-store?
For more details please visit: https://www.google.com/atap/projecttango/#project
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