Speck Design announced July 3 (US time) that it is working with Google to create Project Tango, a tablet that combines camera vision and virtual surroundings into a seamless augmented reality.
According to Speck Design, Project Tango is a mobile platform that understands the world through size, distance, and temporal and spatial relationships. It captures, maps, and navigates human space and surroundings using 3D motion, computer vision, and depth sensing technology. Speck Design says the device can handle a quarter million 3D measurements per second and update its position and orientation in real time.
As part of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects Group (ATAP), Speck Design helped create a tablet design that integrates new hardware and software, including a sophisticated camera array and 3D imaging technology. According to Speck Design, most cameras are set at a ‘zero degree’ angle relative to the display but Project Tango has to have a camera that is able to view its surroundings in the same way humans see while feeling natural to the user.
Based on preliminary testing with potential users, Speck Design developed user-centric features around natural hand placement, landscape orientation, and an optimal camera angle for a full range of vision.
Featured at Google I/O 2014, Project Tango’s integration of computer vision into smart technology has a range of applications, using the tablet to map a house before renovating it, or guiding a car owner through repairs.
“Having the opportunity to work on cutting edge technology at Speck Design, we were inspired by the innovation behind Project Tango to create an integrated tablet design that changes the way we interact with smart technology,” said Jason Stone, Senior Lead Industrial Designer at Speck Design, and Design Lead for Project Tango.
More about the way the tablet was designed is here.