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Lenovo To Build Google's First Project Tango Phone (pcworld.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the prepare-to-be-augmented-or-something dept.

Press2ToContinue writes: Google and Lenovo announced plans Thursday night in Las Vegas for the first Project Tango phone to be released this summer for less than $500. Project Tango is Google's vision to bring augmented reality to phones by enabling devices to be able to sense where they are and what is around them. During the announcement, Google's Johnny Lee demonstrated measuring a room using a prototype Project Tango tablet and then shopping at Lowes for furniture that would fit it. Google also announced an app incubator for Project Tango, which they hope will encourage developers to start building apps that make use of the AR technology.

48 comments

  1. Lenovo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As if Android didn't already have a big enough issue with user privacy...

    1. Re:Lenovo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not? they deal with Samsung and they admit to listening to your conversations via their SmartTVs. I'm pretty sure XBox Kinnect is sending millions of crutch shots to Billy Gates as people jump around in front of that anti-privacy nightmare.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    2. Re:Lenovo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why would a person with crutches be jumping around in front of a Kinect?

    3. Re:Lenovo? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 2

      sending millions of crutch shots to Billy Gates

      What's his preference? Metal or wood?

    4. Re:Lenovo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Graphene

    5. Re:Lenovo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WEE MUUUSST TAKKKEE OVER HUMANITY WITH TECHNOOOOLLLOOOGGGYYY blerg!!!!!
      ;
      ;
      ; //Anti Caps zone
      found here zerg! found here zerg!
      found here zerg! found here zerg!
      found here zerg! found here zerg! //eoacz

  2. Lenovo Malware by kbsoftware · · Score: 2

    What kind of sypware/malware will Lenovo be including into this tech?

    1. Re:Lenovo Malware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Leneov? How about this AR technology?

      Knowing my surroundings and where I am isn't gonna end well. It's one thing for a weather app to want to know location information for people too lazy to enter a zip code or a map program, but to know that I'm in a bank or coffee shop? The only things I can think if is targeted advertising.

      "Hey! You're in Starbucks and it's your birthday! Show this coupon on your screen for a free chocolate cookie!"

      And your AR Tech thingy knows your personal information and when you're in the bank....well, now; I wonder what other information it can pick up? Camera on and it sees your account information, it has your DOB, name, address ...everything needed to wipe you account out. Don't be so sure of Android's protections against accessing parts of a device.

      I'm having a field day right now thinking of all the ways I can use Google's AR tech to create mal-apps to gather information for nefarious purposes.

      All this information that businesses collect has been making us less secure. Businesses don't care because they can just pass the costs onto us. OTOH, when an individual is a victim, it's expensive and damaging for life.

      Google is just an advertising company. Everything they develop it to one way or another push their advertising onto us - they may not know exactly how at the time, but that is their ultimate goal. That is where all of their revenues come from - advertising.

      And businesses know way too much about us already. They do not need to know where the fuck I am at all times of the day.

    2. Re:Lenovo Malware by Rei · · Score: 1

      What does this exactly have to do with AR rather than just general "cameras and GPS devices on phones"?

      --
      Shiny New Australia.
    3. Re:Lenovo Malware by wardrich86 · · Score: 1

      I was thinking the same thing. The phone sounds great... too bad the manufacturer isn't.

    4. Re:Lenovo Malware by Slashdot+Junky · · Score: 1

      people too lazy to enter a zip code or a map program

      I'm with you on this. I don't need or want a weather app on my mobile phone as long as the bookmark for Weather.com's page for my zip code continues to load in my web browser. This approach has been working just fine for along time and isn't wasting system resources while the page isn't loaded. And I only had to type the zipcode once. Hard work, I know.

      --
      .
      Landfill Mining Co.
      Managing the (Un)natural Resources of Tomorrow
    5. Re:Lenovo Malware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google Apps

  3. Here come da fanboyz! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Crying about MS spying on the uptime of their gaming rig but they'll see Google's attempt to absorb their entire environment and doing god knows what with the data as a fresh and revolutionary idea.

    1. Re:Here come da fanboyz! by Rei · · Score: 1

      All of this comes across to me as knee-jerk. Your phone isn't going to sit around and scan without you telling it to. And since the processing is done in-phone, there's no need to store everything on the cloud.

      That said, the things that people want stored could build Google up a pretty impressive database. Picture, say, the AR equivalent of a car repair manual (ignore what I wrote below about AR not really interesting me, there are some subsets that I find neat ;) ). Everything in your car, you can pull up images of what it should look like, how it's attached (make the other objects in front of it "disappear"), connect to parts suppliers and order replacements, order 3d prints or lasercut/CNC parts of things that no longer are available or whose shape the user wants to modify, etc. Such a database could certainly be populated my manufacturers and interested third parties wanting to sell parts, but these sorts of databases could also be populated by enthusiasts (of pretty much any topic), wiki-style or curated with managers. And it's not just the products of mechanical engineering that applies, but civil engineering, industrial processes, architecture/city planning, geology, GIS, forestry management, oceanography, biology, and pretty much anything else on the planet.

      Google could have a massive database, comprised of data entirely from willing parties who are happy to have it there, and users who are happy that it's available. They could, and almost certainly would, make data access free and open - that's Google's MO. But as the owners of the database, there's all sorts of ways that they could monetize its analytics. Ford wants to know what percentage of user-submitted scans of driveshafts from 8-year-old F-150s in coastal areas are heavily rusted vs. those far inland? Google's got that data. The local Department of Transportation wants to know if anyone's submitted a scan of a bridge with heavy concrete spalling that they didn't know about? Google's got that data. Etc. Data can be exchanged freely and fully willingly, with all parties content with the arrangement - but Google still remains in a very good position from an analytics perspective. So long as others can't just download their entire servers as a whole, that is.

      The actual issues I see aren't "Google secretly taking scans without the user's knowledge" - I find that highly unlikely. It's the fact that people will constantly be - even if inadvertently - scanning other people and their possessions. And recognition of individuals in 3d is much easier than in photos, and every scan is geolocated and contextualized. And the system is designed to capture motion as well. You know, if you go to a concert or sports event or anything like that, there's certainly going to be people almost constantly taking scans that capture you. So I certainly hope they're going to have a very good "do not track" system for people who don't to be able to be tagged. That said, I personally want just the opposite - I want to be tagged everywhere that I'm captured, I'd love a 3d trail of my life and all of my experiences. I thus hope that they don't take privacy controls and automatically anonymize everyone with no option to opt-in.

      --
      Shiny New Australia.
    2. Re:Here come da fanboyz! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah Google's gonna make a phone that collects lots of data and then will keep it from themselves. Yeah, right. That sounds totally plausible. lol

    3. Re:Here come da fanboyz! by Rei · · Score: 1

      Apparently you're under the impression that every bit of data collected by an android phone gets transmitted straight to Google.

      --
      Shiny New Australia.
    4. Re:Here come da fanboyz! by malditaenvidia · · Score: 1

      No, it also gets transmitted straight to Google Analytics.

    5. Re:Here come da fanboyz! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm under the impression that you're a bitch fanboy and people should ignore your punk ass.
       
      Now bend over and take that Google dick up your willing faggot ass.

  4. More Big Data for Big Government by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Many people will probably scan their whole home and store it on Google servers which will be accessible by governments that can force Google to stay silent

    1. Re:More Big Data for Big Government by Slashdot+Junky · · Score: 1

      Many people will probably scan their whole home

      Well, I won't be scanning my rooms. When there is a need, I will take some measurements with one of those fancy, hand-held retractable tape thingies, use a pen and paper to take note of these, and then proceed with the project I have in mind. I can even use a pen and paper or spreadsheet application on my computer to whip up some mock drawings to play around with placement ideas. I know, so advanced! A bonus is that I still can do this when my do-everything-under-the-damn-sun phone is bitching about a low battery.

      --
      .
      Landfill Mining Co.
      Managing the (Un)natural Resources of Tomorrow
  5. I don't really care about fancy apps... by Rei · · Score: 1

    Augmented reality doesn't really interest me. Just let me do quality 3d scans with my phone and download the models, and I'm sold ;)

    If they want "apps" that would interest me, they'd be apps to auto-process the scanned 3d data and try to make sense of it - tracking how individual objects move/transform between time steps, autoconstruction of deformable armatures on moving objects, separation objects from the surface that they rest upon (which requires identifying where an object ends and the "ground" begins), identifying what objects are and filling in properties or building/refining fine detail that can't be gotten from the scan (say, threading on a screw, the behavior of hair, etc), calculation of all material properties (not just shape and simple texture maps, but also reflectiveness, surface roughness, transparency, etc), and so on down the line.

    Basically, what I want out of a phone that can easily build models of its environment is... said models of its environment. In as refined and easy to work with of a form as it can give.

    --
    Shiny New Australia.
    1. Re:I don't really care about fancy apps... by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I'd like a wearable that allows me to pull up information about anything in visual range and extend out from there. I realized this when I was on the Skyway in Buffalo, NY. I wanted to know when the Skyway was built, what the max throughput was, what the averages where, elevation, duration of construction, how it was constructed, if there were accidents, and then I wanted to be able to look at the buildings and get even more information like that - including floor plans and whatnot.

      I also realized it would be a horrible distraction while driving. It might work, for snippets or when parked, as a part of the HUD. I was driving up to Niagara Falls - it would be a combination tour guide and documentary, all in my own vision and ears. I'd find that quite handy.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  6. for shopping? by ljw1004 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine a new tech idea that wasn't used to enhance my shopping or ad-consuming experience...

    1. Re:for shopping? by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 1

      Given that I rarely use tech to shop, the best way to enhance my shopping experience is to keep everything shopping-related away from me.

      --
      Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
    2. Re:for shopping? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 0

      Well, then don't go to an ad company for your technology names.

    3. Re:for shopping? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1, Funny

      *Needs* Stupid phone dictation.

    4. Re:for shopping? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you expect an advertising company to develop technology that doesn't enhance their ads?

    5. Re:for shopping? by Rei · · Score: 2

      Indeed, I think they're marketing the whole concept wrong.

      I like the above example - a person fixing a car. That'd be pretty darned nifty if you could pull out your phone and get a model of your engine, automatically broken down into identifiable parts (to the degree that the phone can see), fetching the geometry of what it can't see, letting you virtually remove parts out of the way to see what you need to get to, showing you how parts should look so you can see if something looks wrong, etc. They could still work shopping in - maybe a link from a part lets you search new or used parts sellers for example. But the emphasis for the technology shouldn't be "shopping", it should be "everyday life".

      They could hit up the Facebook crowd too - capturing 3d videos of events rather than just pictures and videos, tagging their friends, reliving events in a Cardboard or Rift viewer, etc. They could target the creative crowd, showing features for automatic capture and download of 3d models, including tools for preprocessing them into discrete, workable objects. They could target the extreme sports people, for planning and recording their crazy endeavours. And on and on. For almost any group, there's a good way they could market this.

      But for YVHV's sake, don't make it all about shopping. :P

      --
      Shiny New Australia.
    6. Re:for shopping? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But for YVHV's sake, don't make it all about shopping. :P

      Yeah, don't make it applicable to Google's actual core business. How dumb of them. /s

    7. Re:for shopping? by Rei · · Score: 1

      What google's core business is has nothing to do with how they have to market a specific product. Nor is every product Google makes oriented around advertising (any more than its competitors' are). Furthermore, Google really has pushed itself to become more of a "big data company" in general rather than specifically advertising.

      --
      Shiny New Australia.
    8. Re:for shopping? by Rei · · Score: 2

      Don't go to a shiny-trendy-overpriced-gadget company for your phone dictation needs.
      Or an ad company. ;)

      --
      Shiny New Australia.
    9. Re:for shopping? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nor is every product Google makes oriented around advertising

      Clearly. I was amazed with that exhaustive list you provided.

      (any more than its competitors' are)

      And then we see your real point. It's the "BUT THE OTHER GUYS ARE DOING IT TOO!!" defense.

    10. Re:for shopping? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Imagine a new tech idea that wasn't used to enhance my shopping or ad-consuming experience...

      I work in the insurance industry and am pretty excited about this technology. I think it could revolutionize how we underwrite and process homeowner claims.

    11. Re:for shopping? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll bet you are. What's the current bonus for successfully denying claims these days?

    12. Re:for shopping? by Rei · · Score: 1

      It's a win for everyone really. Very easy for homeowners to record their property to be insured and reduction of the number of false claims.

      I really just love 3d scanning tech, it's so broadly applicable to so many fields. It doesn't need to be "augmented reality" stuff, it just needs to be able to capture, isolate, and identify objects. I've been patiently (okay, not so patiently ;) ) waiting many years for this.

      --
      Shiny New Australia.
    13. Re:for shopping? by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      Indeed. Does anyone know of an internet search provider that, when you try and search for stuff it brings up something more than pages and pages of shopping ads? At this point I'm finding that 'net searching for information is getting pretty useless.

    14. Re:for shopping? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://www.ixquick.com/

    15. Re:for shopping? by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      Thanks.

  7. What could go wrong? by gstoddart · · Score: 1, Funny

    This should be awesome, Lenovo and Google, two companies I totally trust with my privacy and security.

    No, wait, the other one ... Lenovo who installs spyware and Google who wants to monetize every fact about you, tied in with whatever other ad and alaytics they can jam into this.

    Hell to the no.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  8. Re:Perilous by macs4all · · Score: 0

    Danger is my middle name.

    No. It's "I spell my name, Danger!"

  9. Intel already did it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://click.intel.com/intelrealsensesmartphone-developer-kit.html

    This is the real first phone with Tango, already on pre-order, ships by the end of Q1.

    I've used some demo models, it rocks - and it isn't made by Lenovo, which is always a plus.

    Google has announced Tango phones before together with Qualcomm, and several release dates were given, while nothing was ever released, without explanation. So if you're interested in this stuff, waiting for the Lenovo release would not be the smart move.

  10. FIRST? really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apparently the world has forgotten google already had a tango phone... their first project tango device was a phone. Gotta love misinformation.