Google Tango: Smartphone Prototype with 3D Sensor Chip

Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP), the Google-owned team unveiled its project Tango, a revolutionary 5-inch smartphone prototype that comes with an outstanding new chip that can bring 3D motion tracking to smartphones.

The company plans to ship initial batch of units to testers and software developers as early as this March, so that they can get started creating apps and games for the hardware. Suggested apps include navigation and mapping, including indoor navigation, multiplayer games with physical space inclusion, and new algorithms for processing sensor data.

If you are an interested developer, follow this link to request a prototype kit.

Tango runs the Myriad 1 vision processor from Movidius; a chip that combines an unprecedented efficiency and computer – vision processing, enabling Tango hardware to make a quarter million 3D measurements per second. Hence, Tango will be capable of creating a map of its surroundings.

While Tango runs Android OS, Advanced Technology and Projects admit that the product is not ready for prime time, but releasing the news to the public is the first step to bringing the technology “out of the research labs.” and path the way for handsets ready to start shipping to the end consumers.

ATA P team is also behind Motorola’s project Ara, a modular smartphone with swappable parts.