Project Tango is a special project under Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group which formerly started under Motorola. The project aims to give mobile devices human-like ability to sense space and motion. With the right hardware and software, it would allow mapping of new environments in real time and faster than any technology possible today.
The benefits of this is tremendous. Imagine being able to map out your home interior and you can find out if a new furniture could fit in home right while shopping. For the visually impaired, this would guide them through new territories without the need of being assisted. In the first phase, the released a developer phone that’s fitted with a bunch of cameras and motion sensors that collects far more data than a standard smart phone. You can imagine this as a developer phone with Kinect-like sensors for real-time 3D Mapping. Now Project Tango is releasing a Tablet version which provides even more processing power than before.
Called as the Project Tango Tablet Development Kit, it is powered by the latest Nvidia Tegra K1 processor that’s also found in the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Pad. To ensure that the tablet is ready to take on any job, it also gets 4GB RAM and 128GB of storage. For imaging and sensing, it sports a 4MP camera with 2 micron pixel size and a secondary depth sensing camera which is quite similar to the HTC One M8. The front display is a 7-incher that pushes Full HD resolution and its connectivity includes USB 3.0, WiFi, Bluetooth LE, micro-HDMI and 4G LTE. Obviously this is one serious tablet not for the regular consumer. It will cost US$1,024 (about RM3,295) to get one and is limited to developers by invitation only.
Check out the video of the Tablet Development Kit and Project Tango after the break.
You can find out more about Project Tango over here.
