Google has already spent years driving cars around trying to map the earth's exterior. Now, with Project Tango, it's moving indoors.
The search giant shared during the second day of its 2014 Google IO conference that the first commercial Project Tango device, an LG-built tablet, will arrive in 2015.
Like the prototype Project Tango gadgets shown off over the last several months, this LG tablet will be able to create real-time 3D maps of whatever it sees.
So far LG is the only partner Google has announced for Project Tango, which at this time is still in an experimental prototype phase.
Tango and $
Google introduced Project Tango in February, when the company's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group suggested the tech might be used for everything from virtual furniture rearranging to grocery store mapping.
The Tango-equipped prototype smartphone shown off initially sported custom motion-tracking hardware and software, features that then found their way onto a prototype Tango tablet in early June.
The Project Tango development kit, which includes said tablet, is still scheduled to go on sale later this year for $1,024 (about UK£609, AU$1,098). However, it's unclear at this time how much next year's LG tablet will cost, when it will arrive, or even what its specs will look like.
What's missing
At Google IO, Project Tango lead Johnny Lee showed demos in which he mapped his own house and played an augmented reality game involving a wizard.
"Imagine if the directions to your destination didn't stop at the front door, but to tell you exactly where to go and what to do," he said. "The compute is here. The compute is genuinely here to do amazing things with our devices. What's missing is the hardware and the software."
Well, not for long, it seems.
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Via The Verge
