Google’s Project Tango tablet development kit is going on sale this month in 12 additional countries.
The tablet and associated tools were released in the U.S. in May, and as of Tuesday they’re now available in South Korea and Canada as well, Google said in a blog post. On Aug. 26, the development kit will also go on sale in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K.
While anyone in those countries will be able to buy Project Tango from the Google Play Store, the company stressed that it’s intended right now for developers.
Project Tango uses a depth sensing camera and other technologies to create a virtual 3D map of the world around it. That allows developers to create novel apps that incorporate things like augmented reality and object tracking. NASA has used it to help guide flying robots in space.
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Google's Project Tango is shutting down because ARCore is already here
Google said today that it'll be shutting down Project Tango next year, on March 1st. Project Tango was an early effort from Google to bring augmented reality to phones, but it never really panned out. The system was introduced in 2014 and made it into developer kits and even a couple consumer devices as recently as last year.
But those devices required special sensors. And in the meantime, Google (and competitors, like Apple) figured out ways to bring AR features to phones with just the hardware that's already on board. Google introduced a new augmented reality system, known as ARCore, in late August. It just brought that system to the Pixel and Pixel 2 in the form of some augmented reality stickers — immediately opening AR features to more people than Tango is likely to have reached in its lifetime.
Also at Ars Technica, TechCrunch.
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HTC Cancels U.S. Release of a Google Daydream VR Headset, Reveals Own Standalone Headset
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2015, @08:08AM
Because what we really need to see is robots fucking in space. That's the kind of shit that drives the consumerist obsession that an advertising company like Google exists for.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2015, @08:27AM
Project Tango is distinct from Intel RealSense [bbc.com]