Google announces Project Tango development kit

The 7-inch tablet comes with exceptional specifications with a special emphasis on 3D motion tracking. It has camera specialised for tracking the full 3D motion of the device as well as integrated depth sensing for capturing geometry of the environment.

Google explains: “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.”

“They 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. These early prototypes, algorithms, and APIs are still in active development. So, these experimental devices are intended only for the adventurous and are not a final shipping product.”

The tablet is powered by the new NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor packed with 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, motion tracking camera, integrated depth sensing, WiFi, BTLE, and 4G LTE (availability will depend on region and carrier). You can find more details about the Project Tango tablet here. 

Developers can “express interest” by signing up on the website. Google will send notifications when the Project Tango Tablet Development Kit goes on sale later this year for $1024.

Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) team had unveiled a Project Tango smartphone prototype earlier this year. With the Project Tango devices, Google incorporate robotics and vision-processing technology.

“The goal of Project Tango is to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion. Our team has been working with universities, research labs, and industrial partners spanning nine countries around the world to build on the last decade of research in robotics and computer vision, concentrating that technology into a unique mobile device,” says Johnny Lee and the ATAP-Project Tango Team on the official website. 

“We are putting early prototypes into the hands of developers that can imagine the possibilities and help bring those ideas into reality.We hope you will take this journey with us. We believe it will be one worth traveling.”