Kinect comes to your phone: Google reveals handset with built in 3D scanner - and it could mean you never get lost again
- Phone will only be sold to app developers
- Could be used for indoor navigation and augmented reality games
- Technology similar to Microsoft's Kinect for game consoles
- Google has revealed a mobile phone with a built in 3D scanner that could revolutionise navigation.
Called Project Tango, the phone can build up a live 3D map of its surrounding area.
It will initially only be sold to developers, who Google hope will develop everything from satnav apps to games similar to those found on Microsoft's Xbox, which uses the 3D Kinect sensor..
Google's prototype phone - a 5inch handset packed with 3D sensors
The handset can automatically build a 3D map of anywhere the user is, allowing for far better indoor navigation
HOW IT WORKS
The current prototype is a 5” phone containing 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 phone to make over a quarter million 3D measurements every second, updating it’s position and orientation in real-time, combining that data into a single 3D model of the space around you.
'Project Tango strives to give mobile devices a human-like understanding of space and motion through advanced sensor fusion and computer vision, enabling new and enhanced types of user experiences – including 3D scanning, indoor navigation and immersive gaming,' said Johnny Lee, the technical lead on the programme.
The handset can take 250,000 3D measurements a second
It was created by Motorola's ATAP division, which last week joined Google.
'The goal of Project Tango is to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion,' it said.
The phone has a compass and gyros, just like any other phone, but in addition, has Kinect-like visual sensors that can scan the room around the phone.
Ya es lo ultimo que les falta... poder saber lo que tienes dentro de casa, asi ya conoceran todo de ti.
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