NOT CONTENT WITH just working on experimental smartphones, Google has turned its attention towards developing tablets which can map its surroundings.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google’s new 7-inch tablet will be equipped with two back cameras, infrared depth sensors and advanced software that can capture 3D images of objects.
The company is producing about 4,000 prototype tablets beginning next month. The tablets could be released ahead of its annual developer conference Google I/O, which will take place at the end of June.
If this sounds somewhat familiar, that’s because it’s being developed as part of Project Tango, a section of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group working on experimental mobile devices.
Back in February, it released a prototype smartphone which uses sensors to capture and map a user’s surroundings. It makes more than 250 million 3D measurements every second to build a 3D model of its surroundings.
The smartphone could be used to help improve indoor navigation as well as gaming, allowing the visually-impaired make their way through unfamiliar indoor locations, and measuring objects and spaces.
Like the Project Tango smartphone, Google will provide a number of developers with the new tablets to help develop new ways to use the technology.
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