Project Ara is no the only project that Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) project team is working on. It is also working on devices that can perform advanced motion and spatial tracking. A range of sensors allows these devices create maps of their physical surroundings in real time.
As we walk through our daily lives, we use visual cues to navigate and understand the world around us. We observe the size and shape of objects and rooms, and we learn their position and layout almost effortlessly over time. This awareness of space and motion is fundamental to the way we interact with our environment and each other. We are physical beings that live in a 3D world. Yet, our mobile devices assume that physical world ends at the boundaries of the screen.
The goal of Project Tango is to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion.
Back in February, Google showed off a prototype smartphone that packed not only a 4MP camera but also computer vision processors, integrated depth sensing and a motion tracking camera. Today it announced the Project Tango Tablet Development Kit for developers interested in exploring the future of mobile 3D sensing.
The kit comes with a 7-inch tablet which packs an NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE and 4G LTE. It also includes a motion tracking camera and integrated depth sensing. The tablet will also receive updates “as the software algorithms and APIs evolve.”
Google points out that these devices are not geared at consumers and will “be available in limited quantities” when they go on sale later this year for US$1024. In the meantime, you can sign up now to receive further notifications about the development kit.
Source : Project Tango