Google is developing a new tablet with advanced vision
capabilities that can be used to capture 3D images.
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| Google 3D TAB |
The Company plans to produce about 4000 of the prototype
tablets beginning next month according to people briefed on the company's
plans. The new tabletcould be ready before Google's developer conference Google I/O kicks
off on June 25, the Journal said.
The tablet will have a 7-inch screen, infrared depth
censors, two back cameras and software for processing 3D images, and will be
part of Google's Project Tango, according to the newspaper.
Project
Tango is Google's attempt to create a mobile device that shares a
human's sense of space and movement and understands and perceives the world the
same way we do.
A Google spokesman declined to comment on the tablet plans
on Friday.
In February, Google launched a 5-inch
Project Tango prototype Android smartphone combining technology from
the worlds of computer vision and robotics to create a 3D model of the phone's
surroundings.
This technology could for instance be used to quickly find
the exact shelf where a product is located in a store or to make a 3D floor
plan of a house before going out to shop for furniture. Project Tango could
also guide the visually impaired around unfamiliar indoor places and provide
step-by-step directions in stores.
These are all possibilities for the tablet too, reported the
Wall Street Journal, adding that the technology could also be used for
immersive videogames.
Two Project Tango phones are heading
to the International Space Station during the upcoming Orbital 2
commercial resupply mission scheduled to launch on June 10. The phones will be
attached to self-powered soccer-ball-sized robots called "Spheres"
that will fly around inside the space station.
NASA will test how well the 3D modeling and visual odometry
can be used to let the Spheres learn their environment based on what it sees,
rather than relying on fixed sensors in the environment. One day, the 3D phones
could also be used to fly around the outside of the space station or even for
NASA's plans to land on an asteroid.
(See video of the Tango phone and Spheres at NASA in a YouTube video.)
Google is not the only company investing in advanced 3D
tech. Facebook is also interested and is in the process of buying Oculus VR,
the developer of the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset for
about US$2 billion. That acquisition is about much more than gaming though.
Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg sees it as the next major computing platform, one that will be
used for shopping, communication, education and more.
