Project Tango | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:31:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Project Tango | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Lenovo and Google to team up for 3D mapping smartphone https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/matthew-wilson/lenovo-and-google-to-team-up-for-3d-mapping-smartphone/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/matthew-wilson/lenovo-and-google-to-team-up-for-3d-mapping-smartphone/#respond Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:31:08 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=281004 Google has been working on its ‘Project Tango' smartphone for quite some time now. The device is designed to create 3D maps of its surroundings but it had just been a prototype until now, as Google is teaming up with Lenovo to implement Project Tango's features into a new smartphone to release this year. Google …

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Google has been working on its ‘Project Tango' smartphone for quite some time now. The device is designed to create 3D maps of its surroundings but it had just been a prototype until now, as Google is teaming up with Lenovo to implement Project Tango's features into a new smartphone to release this year.

Google has been working on this camera technology for three years now, which allows a device to detect depth and map out space in 3D directly on the smartphone.

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The technology is capable of showing the distances between spaces but it does require an RGB camera, an infrared camera and a fisheye camera to work so there is a lot to cram into a smartphone. The Lenovo-built Tango device will make use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, likely the 820 and the device will be built to hit a price point under $500.

Right now, we have only seen a few demos of the technology but with a consumer oriented device set to hit the market this year, we may see more developers begin to experiment with Tango and its 3D mapping functionality.

KitGuru Says: This is quite an ambitious undertaking and will certainly make this smartphone stand out from the normal devices we are used to seeing. However, I do wonder if this technology will appeal to the mass market rather than a niche group. 

 

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Google unveils project Tango tablet: Tegra K1 inside, $1024 price-point https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/anton-shilov/google-unveils-project-tango-tablet-tegra-k1-inside-1024-price-point/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/anton-shilov/google-unveils-project-tango-tablet-tegra-k1-inside-1024-price-point/#respond Fri, 06 Jun 2014 22:59:18 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=197141 Google this week introduced a new tablet for software developers that belongs to its family of devices supporting the project Tango technologies. The mobile device has Nvidia Tegra K1 application processor inside as well as advanced sensing capabilities that help it to create a 3D model of the environment around it. The specs of the …

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Google this week introduced a new tablet for software developers that belongs to its family of devices supporting the project Tango technologies. The mobile device has Nvidia Tegra K1 application processor inside as well as advanced sensing capabilities that help it to create a 3D model of the environment around it. The specs of the slate give a glimpse on requirements of the Tango technology.

The goal of Google’s project Tango is to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion. While the side benefits of the project Tango are advancements in research of robotics and computer vision (something necessary for Google’s self-driving cars), the target applications of the project are mobile devices as well as, hypothetically, wearable computing devices. The Tango is expected to enable multitudes of useful applications for a broad range of needs.

The Project Tango devices feature special hardware (an RGB camera, a motion tracking camera, IR depth sensor(s), motion sensors [gyroscope, accelerometer, speed detection sensor, etc.] as well as special chips/algorithms to process such data efficiently) and software designed to track the full 3D motion of the device, while simultaneously creating a map of the environment. According to Google, the 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 the device.

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The project Tango tablet development kit is based on Nvidia's Tegra K1 processor and comes with a 7” display with 1920*1080 resolution, 4GB of LPDDR3 memory, 128GB of NAND flash storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE as well as 4G/LTE connectivity. The development kit is designed for professional developers interested in exploring the future of mobile 3D sensing.

Nvidia hints that the project Tango tablet devkit utilizes GPGPU [general-purpose computing on GPUs] compute technologies to create 3D environmental models. At present the company’s Tegra K1 with 192 stream processors based on the Kepler architecture that supports OpenCL is among a few mobile SoCs with GPU-compute capabilities. Given that Google already encourages developers to use GPGPU technologies, it looks like the project Tango-based devices will require powerful graphics processing units.

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The Project Tango tablet development kit goes on sale later this year for $1024.These development kits are not a consumer device and will be available in limited quantities (some believe that only 4000 units will be made). As usually, Google does not indicate when the project Tango evolves into a commercial product.

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KitGuru Says: Google’s project Tango is a yet another promising technology from the company. While the project Tango definitely has a lot of potential, just like in case of the project Loon, the Google Contact Lens and other, it is completely unclear when it is set to become a product. Perhaps, the first devices featuring elements of the project Tango will emerge already next year. Or maybe in three years from now? No one knows that for sure.

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Google reveals Project Tango- A smartphone that maps its surroundings https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/matthew-wilson/google-reveals-project-tango-a-smartphone-that-maps-its-surroundings/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/matthew-wilson/google-reveals-project-tango-a-smartphone-that-maps-its-surroundings/#respond Fri, 21 Feb 2014 07:00:44 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=178285 Google is expanding its lineup with a newly revealed smartphone prototype, currently named Project Tango. The Android phone is built to learn about and then map the world around it, for example, the phone will learn the dimensions of your room just by being carried around and then eventually learn the shape of the whole …

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Google is expanding its lineup with a newly revealed smartphone prototype, currently named Project Tango. The Android phone is built to learn about and then map the world around it, for example, the phone will learn the dimensions of your room just by being carried around and then eventually learn the shape of the whole house- and then direct you through it. Google hopes that it will eventually be able to create a robust map of the world, which would then allow the phone to give precise directions to pretty much anywhere.

Screen Shot 2014-02-20 at 23.28.47

Project Tango has come from the Advanced Technology and Projects group, which happens to be one of the few parts of Motorola Google held on to after unexpectedly selling it off to Lenovo. Leader of the Project, Johnny Lee, said: “The goal of Project Tango is to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion,”

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe10ExwzCqk']

At the moment Google has 200 prototypes ready to give out to developers who can then start taking advantage of the phone's sensors. Speaking of ambitious projects, the Internet giant also held on to Project Ara, the modular smartphone concept being brought to life in conjunction with ‘Phonebloks' maker, Dave Hakkens.

KitGuru Says: This could greatly improve smartphone mapping services, at the moment using a smartphone to help get around can be a hassle but if this technology works well enough then that could change. 

Source: Engadget

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