Google has unveiled a new phone that makes real-time, 3-D maps of its environments. Its “customized hardware and software” includes sensors that gives it the capability to make over a quarter of a million measurements every second. Its uses could include indoor mapping and navigation assistance for the visually-impaired.
“We are physical beings that live in a 3-D world,” Google says. “Yet, our mobile devices assume that physical world ends at the boundaries of the screen.”
A prototype of the device, developed by Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects unit under a venture called Project Tango, is being offered to 200 developers interested in making apps for the phone.
[BBC]
More Must-Reads From TIME
- What a Photographer Saw in the West Bank
- The Dirty Secrets of Alternative Plastics
- Accenture’s Chief AI Officer on Why This Is a Defining Moment
- We Should Get Paid for Our Online Data: Column
- Inside COP28's Big 'Experiment'
- The 100 Must-Read Books of 2023
- The Top 100 Photos of 2023
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time