Google Shows Commitment to Project Tango 3D Mapping Device

Google has reaffirmed its commitment to Project Tango, moving it from the Advanced Technology and Projects Group (ATAP) to a new home inside the company itself, reports Digital Trends.

Project Tango, unveiled in 2014, aims to make it possible to create a 3D model of the space around a smartphone. For instance, a user can map an area, such as a home, by walking around with the phone.

ATAP is Google’s mobile-focused project development laboratory, and shifting Tango from there to a new base suggests Google is happy with the way the project is progressing and ready to take it to the next level, Digital Trends reports.

Google has been collaborating with universities, research labs, and industrial partners in nine countries to concentrate the past 10 years of research in robotics and computer vision into a mobile phone.

Project Tango devices contain 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 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 you.

Early prototypes run Android and include development APIs to provide position, orientation, and depth data to standard Android applications written in Java, C/C++, as well as the Unity Game Engine.