Lenovo, Qualcomm to launch first device on Google’s Project Tango platform

This means that unlike any GPS-enabled device, the new smartphone can precisely navigate you through an office, hotel or a shopping mall. It was highly-speculated that the end result could be some kind of commercial smartphone, and it looks like if you were a betting kind of person, you’d be right. This project is aimed at facilitating a range of augmented reality experiences.

During a quick announcement at CES Lenovo took the stage to confirm it has a bold plan that will take Google’s experiment and turn it into a feature, deliver games, and more to mobile phones.

But on 7 January at CES, Lenovo announced that it will release the first consumer smartphone with Google’s Project Tango hardware and software inside it, by June-July this year. Specialized hardware and software combine to let the device react to every movement of the user, when they step forward, backward, or lean side to side.

The device with Project Tango technology is expected to have three cameras- one for color detection, second for depth sensing and a fish eye lens.

Announced in February 2014, Google’s Project Tango was certainly noticed here in Ireland given that one of our own companies, Movidius, was chosen as the manufacturer of the chip packed with 3D sensors that can build a visual map of the environment around it using 3D scanning.

Lenovo is also inviting developers to help grow the budding Project Tango app ecosystem.

Last but not least, with the help of a unique sensor inside Project Tango devices, users will be able to capture the 3D dimensions of the room and give measurements that can be used for various purposes. The price point is under $500.

It works on several Android device platforms that run C, Java, and Unity. Lee exhibited a Jenga game with virtual blocks presented on an actual table, and also brought out virtual pets that interacted with the environment, while showing video of an indoor-navigation app that placed virtual dots on the floor for the user to follow.

At the same time Lenovo is showcasing it’s Google-partnered AR-friendly technology, Google is demoing tech that encourages devs to invest in these burgeoning fields of augmented reality and virtual reality.

Till few years back, the idea of such level of vision processing and 3D sensing in a mobile device was not possible due to the high amount of power required by it. Such power is simply out of scope for the battery of a normal smartphone. Selected developers will also get funding for their idea, and their apps will be preloaded on the Lenovo smart phone.