Google, Lenovo Team Up for the First Project Tango Smartphone
It’s official! The first project tango smartphones will be available in the market by summer of this year. The crowd at last week’s CES meeting cheered as Google’s John Lee and Lenovo’s General Manager Jeff Meredith announced that works are on its way to have the “future of technology†be evenly distributed to more people.
With Google and Lenovo’s partnership, your smartphone becomes a magic lens that can capture anything it has been framed on in 3D. This is made possible with the Google's technology we know now as Project Tango, Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group developed to create a better user interaction with the environment they would like to capture and experience. Mobile devices that are designed using the Project Tango platform have specialized image sensors to measure depth and track motion.
Lee stressed that it took them three years to refine this technology to provide us “a mobile device that can see how we see." It merges 3D motion tracking with depth sensing to give your smart device the ability to know where it is and how it moves through space.
Moreover, this platform allows developers to create applications that explore the physical space around the user-- including precise navigation without GPS, windows into virtual 3D worlds, measurements of spaces, and games that know where they are in the room and what’s around them.
With this technology on the background of the smart device, it can do so much more -- imagine creating and augmenting reality like you’re in gaming mode. With the Lenovo Tango you can make precise measurements without actually reaching for tools to do it other than your phone. You can even find your way within an environment, without using any GPS, as it virtually places guides and landmarks to help you find your way. Unlike GPS, Project Tango’s motion tracking works indoors.
To see how the device actually works, check out this demonstration Lee provided for the audience at CES 2016. The Lenovo Tango smartphones will be sold at a price point of under $500, according to Meredith.