Morgan Freeman Google has recreated a technology, called Project Tango, that we’ve seen represented in The Dark Knight which uses a smartphone as a mapping device, able to scan its surroundings and create a 3D model of the location around it. The point? Google has a range of aims in mind, from gaming to enhanced navigation maps to helping the visually impaired.
The company is planning on getting their prototype to developers to see what they might be able to do with it, with 200 devices available for the first round of testing. Google’s prototype device 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.”
Of course, having a world-mapping smartphone in everyone’s pocket will probably result in a lot of privacy concerns cropping up. Having a complete 3D map of everywhere that people are could be turned to nefarious purposes as well as positive ones. Still, Google is experimenting with technology in ways that are, at the very least, highly ambitious. That’s got to be worth something.
Source: The Verge