Google Stops Tango

Surprised at this.  Tango had impressed me as a way to really understand spaces, analyze them, and intelligently augment them.  Rather than just paste in an image.   Lets hope some of that shows up in ARCore

Google kills augmented reality project Tango to focus on ARCore    By Mark Jansen in DigitalTrends

" ... Tango was always an ambitious project, with big plans for the medical world or as an interactive tour guide in museums. Recently, HoloLens and Tango were used to create a life-like tank experience for guests of the World of Tanks TankFest 2017 event.

Unfortunately for those few who did adopt Tango, it seems the extreme high-end nature of the platform was its stumbling block. Hopefully Google will look to import much of what made Tango great into ARCore.  .... " 

Privacy of Home Robotic Data

Thoughful piece that follows up on the use of home robots building models of homes, and potential  sharing of that data.     More broadly we will see this kind of data also being gathered by AR systems as well, for example Google's Project Tango.   In that case not robotic, but human 'scanning'.

Interview: iRobot CEO Colin Angle on Data Privacy and Robots in the Home    By Evan Ackerman   in IEEE Spectrum

About a month ago, iRobot CEO Colin Angle mentioned something about sharing Roomba mapping data in an interview with Reuters. It got turned into a data privacy kerfuffle in a way that iRobot did not intend and (probably) did not deserve, as evidenced by their immediate clarification that iRobot will not sell your data or share it without your consent .... 

Data privacy is important, of course, especially for devices that live in your home with you. But as robots get more capable, the amount of data that they collect will increase, and sharing that data in a useful, thoughtful, and considerate way could make smart homes way smarter. To understand how iRobot is going to make this happen, we spoke with Angle about keeping your data safe, integrating robots with the future smart home, and robots that can get you a beer.  ... " 

Google's Second Tango Phone

Have been waiting for this.  Seen demos.   Had seen this as a possibility for detecting, mapping and understanding interior spaces and fixtures, like shelves.   The second phone implementing their vaunted Tango project that maps interior spaces.  Perhaps in response to rumored upcoming Apple AR phone systems?  The Tango idea gets a negative review below,  too much hardware, while the Apple ARKit has no additional hardware.  Following.

Google’s second AR phone, the Asus ZenFone AR, is finally official
Google's augmented reality phones take forever to release, for whatever reason.
By Ron Amadeo  ...   "

See Project Tango.

New ASUS Phone Supports Tango AR

Have followed the Tango Augmented reality capability from Google for some time.  It can model interior spaces for AR.  Question is  if there are enough Tango AR enabled Apps,.  This is answered: " ...   the number of Tango apps is expected to reach over 1,000 next year, and his company will be doing its part by hosting AR developer conferences with Google -- there'll be one in Taiwan in July. ... " 

ASUS' Tango-powered ZenFone AR will hit the US in July
The second Google Tango phone is the first one worth owning.
 by Richard Lai, @richardlai

Google's VPS uses Tango and Lens

Google's new Visual Positioning System takes learning, Navigation to new Levels.
By Brad Bourque

Google has unveiled its Visual Positioning System, which could usher in new ways for navigating the world and learning 

As Google rolls out a slew of new features for Android and Daydream, one stood out as a triumphant convergence of a number of projects from parent company Alphabet, including Project Tango, Google Maps, and Lens. It’s called the Visual Positioning System, or VPS, and it uses internal sensors and cameras to help you navigate the world around you.

The practical use is simple, even if the underlying technology isn’t. Users can walk into a store and point their phone’s camera in front of them. After identifying what it is you’re looking for, VPS will kick in, using visual data and previous sessions to point you in the right direction. Google showed it off in a hardware store, but it’s not hard to imagine how the technology could be extended to malls, large stadiums, theme parks, or museums. .... "

Using AR To Transfer Images

If you can't draw well, or precisely, perhaps you can trace images from a phone App using Augmented Reality.   Clever idea for the right kind of application.  Warns that this is best done with the aid of a tripod.  Available on IOS for now,   Right now it only works with A4 size paper, but they report that it will ultimately be linked to the Project Tango system to detect location,  on a Lenovo Phone, with the potential of doing full size murals.

In ITunes:  " ... SketchAR is an application through which the user sees a virtual image on the surface of which they are planning to trace a sketch. In one hand, the user holds a phone and sees a virtual image, while the other hand traces virtual lines already on the paper ... " 

SketchAR puts virtual images on paper to let you trace drawings from your phone by Dami Lee @dami_lee In TheVerge: .. 

Google Tango Location is Testing at Lowes

Been a long time tester of retail location intelligence solutions.  Now news that Lowes is starting to test Google Tango location intelligence using augmented reality on phones.    Have also mentioned the interior space model building technology that Google is using a number of times here.   Again, impressed with Lowes broad use of new tech.  In CNet:

Google Tango means you'll never get lost in a store again ... Some Lowe's stores are testing out an augmented-reality app that shows the fastest way to get to your items. .... " 

See also Lowe's work on robotics and AR based DIY instruction at the tag below.

AI is Understanding the 3D World

In Technology Review.

AI Begins to Understand the 3-D World   by Will Knight
Research on artificial intelligence moves from 2-D to 3-D representations of the world—work that could lead to big advances in robotics and automated driving.  ... ." 

Movidius Acquired by Intel

Autonomous devices will require vision as their most important sense.  In January, 2016 the company announced a partnership with Google.  Movidius has been active in the Google Project Tango project

Movidius + Intel = Vision for the Future of Autonomous Devices

Today, I’m excited to announce the planned acquisition of Movidius by Intel. Movidius’ mission is to give the power of sight to machines. As part of Intel, we’ll remain focused on this mission, but with the technology and resources to innovate faster and execute at scale. We will continue to operate with the same eagerness to invent and the same customer-focus attitude that we’re known for, and we will retain Movidius talent and the start-up mentality that we have demonstrated over the years.

Technology companies select Movidius’ Myriad 2 for its ability to execute concurrent, mission critical vision specific workloads in real time, at high performance and in an ultra-low power envelope. Deep Learning has emerged as one of the most transformative paradigms in computer vision for the next generation of embedded devices. Myriad 2’s architecture carefully balances compute performance, power, and cost, enabling Deep Neural Networks to be deployed in places they’ve never been before.  ... " 

Project Tango Video

Video of project Tango, using a smartphone, here used to map and discover contents of a Barcelona complex museum floor.   Consider retail applications to make navigation, discovery and engagement more intelligent.     With existing smartphone hardware.   Further connection with Beacon technologies that associate for engagement?

Tango Mapping Phone Hands on

In Engadget:  Mapping interior spaces.

Up close and Personal with the First Tango phone
Lenovo's Phab2 Pro has a lousy name, but Google's 3D mapping technology could make it a game changer.   ...  "

Phone Sensing its Environment

Phones sensing their environment in new ways.  Have tracked the Project Tango idea for some time.  An inverse of the beacon idea, with initiative given to the consumer device.   Implications?   More in  CIO Today. 

" .... We're about to get our first look. On Thursday, Lenovo will give consumers their first chance to buy a phone featuring Google's 3-year-old Project Tango, an attempt to imbue machines with a better understanding about what's around them.

Location tracking through GPS and cell towers tells apps where you are, but not much more. Tango uses software and sensors to track motions and size up the contours of rooms, empowering Lenovo's new phone to map building interiors. That's a crucial building block of a promising new frontier in "augmented reality," or the digital projection of lifelike images and data into a real-life environment. ... " 

Helping Drones Fly Indoors

From Augmented Pixels, a ompany I have had some conversations with, with a touch of space modeling?  Another Tango?  More about Augmented Pixels.

Retailer to Use Tango for Augmented Reality

I recall a number of related applications for inserting architecture elements into a space.   Augmenting reality by manipulating chosen insertions.    How can this be made as easy as possible?  Tango would provide space sensing and area-learning capability.    Does it also imply the need for handsfree manipulation?     In CWorld:

" ... Wayfair Inc. , a Boston-based, 14-year-old e-commerce company that sells home furnishings, is working on an app based on Google's Project Tango technology that would put augmented reality, and  
If all goes as planned, customers using Wayfair's app would go beyond looking at a photo of a love seat or table, reading the measurements and wondering how the piece would look in their living room.

The app would use Project Tango's mapping, computer vision, depth-sensing, 3D-motion tracking and machine-learning technology to allow customers to see – on their Android smartphone or tablet – how a piece of furniture would look in their home. ... "  

Head Mounted Displays and Knowing Your Space

In VR Focus, an overview of current announcements in head mounted displays and also notably Project Tango.  Advertisers and marketers have taken notice, but I have yet to see an example of the use of a  head mounted display 'in the wild'.  Though we created one ourselves when testing Google Glass in a local Panera.   Still most interested in enterprise applications.

As I have mentioned a number of times, we tested several augmented reality systems years ago.   Still as I see it, has the firm requirement of hands free applications in the enterprise.  Different from voice driven Apps.  Impressed with movement forward with Tango, which builds models of space. Ultimately you will need to know the space you are operating in.

And more on Project Tango.

Project Tango Area Learning

Mentioned previously here for retail applications.

From Google I/O

Streaming at the link.  (My apologies I thought these would be recorded at the link, but apparently are not.  Only streamed at time indicated.  If anyone has a link to the recording, let me know and I will replace with a link here)  An intro has been placed at the link below for now.

Introducing Project Tango Area Learning
May 18, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM / Stage 1 | Hercules  (PST) 

Motion tracking on a mobile device has already enabled a whole new range of experiences, but what would be possible if your Project Tango device could have a memory? With Area Learning, Project Tango can not only see the space around you, but it can also remember the space around you. This opens up a new range of possibilities for Project Tango developers - attach virtual objects to the world that remain in place even when you restart an app, design multiplayer experiences and know the exact location of each player, pause/resume AR/VR experiences, and eliminate motion tracking drift. We'll go over basic concepts of area learning and best practices for Project Tango developers. ..  ... " 

Announced that a Tango enabled phone will be announced by Lenovo  this year.
Tango devices will be made available next month. 
Further announcements to be made here on May 18 at 3 PM PST. 

Project Tango from Google for Consumers?

Sensor fitted phone coming?   Rumors that this will be announced at IO meetings next week.  It was often mentioned as a means to navigate inside physical retail.  Or for advanced real estate interaction? Will this ultimately be a kind of phone delivered augmented reality method?  Following.  See Google Project Tango.   See previous Tango mentions on tag below.

More on Project Tango

I remember hearing about Google Tango as a means for augmented reality overlays of product and purchasing decisions.  And also as a means of modeling 3D spaces.   But Google sees it further in Robots and Drones.

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(Update on 9/30/2019)

We recently published an article that explains What Happened to Google's Tango?. The article covers the birth and death of Tango, how it has influenced the AR Technology, and a lot more.Although Tango is replaced by ARCore now, I still think it's worth being remembered, and the story of it could be useful to your readers.

Here's the article if you want to take a look: https://www.dailywireless.org/mobile/what-happened-to-google-tango/
It’d be wonderful if you can consider swapping out the broken link for our article.
Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you for your time.
Regards,

Luke Pensworth
Manager
Email: luke.ps@dailywireless.org
Web  : https://www.dailywireless.org/

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Smartphone with Augmented Reality

A concept we played with for some time.   Is it a better wat to engage, to buy?  How does it change the very nature of advertising?   Overlaying marketing with your mobile reality.  We primarily studied it on venues like cart mounted displays.    In Adage: " .... Lenovo Unveils First Smartphone With Google's Tango Augmented Reality .... Google's Tango overlays info and objects onto phone displays ... Lenovo has unveiled a smartphone that can see and map out its surroundings with help from an Alphabet 3D-scanning technology. ... "     More about project Tango.

Google and Intel VR with Tango

In VRFocus: Hardware and software interaction for virtual reality.  " ... Google has lots of plans and one of those is its recent partnership with Intel for Project Tango. ...  Intel has recently integrated its 3D sensing RealSense Cameras into Googles Project Tango system, which allows for instant 3D mapping of real environments on a smartphone of tablet, reports Nasdaq.com.  ... "  (More details at the link)