Project Tango, A Prototype Phone From Google That Creates a 3D Model of the World Around It

Project Tango, a collaboration between Google Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group and universities, research labs, and industrial partners, is a prototype mobile phone that constantly takes 3D measurements to give the device a much better understanding of physical scale, space, and motion in order to create a 3D model of its surroundings.

The prototype runs Android with a series of dev APIs that provide position, orientation, and depth data to Java, C and C++, and Unity. They’ve currently produced only 200 prototype dev kits for Project Tango, and are currently accepting applications from developers. They are looking to distribute all available kits by March 14th, 2014.

Our current prototype is a 5” phone containing 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 phone 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.