You know when you’ve been Tango’d. Say hello to the first fruits of Google’s Project Tango, a prototype smart phone that makes thousands of calculations per second to map the world around you in 3D.
The Tango prototype is a 5-inch Android phone boasting a 4-megapixel camera, a motion-sensing camera on the back, a depth sensor, and two computer vision processors. These various sensing gubbins combine to make more than 250,000 3D measurements every second, building a 3D model of the space around you.
The system is designed to be useful to map your precise location when you’re indoors, out of the reach of GPS. And it can guide the blind or visually-impaired.
The phone could also be used for gaming and augmented reality.
It has been developed by the big brains in the Big G’s Advanced Technology and Projects unit, the team behind Motorola’s clever modular Project Ara phone. 200 prototype phones are being offered to developers to build apps for the platform.