Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 5409 |
| Work Detail | Google's Project Tango is ready to dance thanks to the depth sensing 3D camera built into Lenovo's latest phablet. Basic augmented reality mobile apps have been available for a long time but Lenovo's Phab2 Pro, launched at the IFA technology show in Berlin, takes them to a new level. Rather than simply paste virtual objects over the phone's camera's view of the world, like Pokemon Go, the Phab2 Pro lets you see and interact with virtual objects as if they were really in the room. The phablet is equipped with a wide-angle camera lens, along with an infrared projector and camera to scan the room to get a true sense of geometry and depth. These are required to support Google's Project Tango augmented reality platform, along with high-quality orientation sensors to accurately track the device's movement in the real-world. The Phab2 Pro sports a 6.4-inch display, which makes it a hefty phone but lends itself well to AR applications. Running Android, it's blessed with a custom Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 power plant along with a generous 4GB of RAM Like Microsoft's Hololens augmented reality headset, Project Tango Android devices don't require external cameras to track your movements around the room, nor do they need to stay tethered to a computer or games console. This grants users much more freedom than the current generation of virtual reality devices. Back at the Google I/O developer conference in May, we saw a video presentation which implied that it might be possible to use a Tango-capable handset in a Google Cardboard-style holder to cobble together a Hololens-esque experience. We're waiting to see how that pans out, but the Google DayDream VR developers in Mountain View certainly gave me the impression that there's scope for DayDream and Tango to intertwine. As a smartphone Lenovo's Phab2 Pro is competitively priced at $US499, which translates to roughly $750, although there's no indication of Australian availability as yet. At this point it's likely to be a niche product rather than have mainstream appeal, but it will be interesting to see whether it helps Project Tango get out on the dance floor or whether Google's efforts are destined to be the wallflower of augmented reality. |
| Country | Germany , Western Europe |
| Industry | Information Technology |
| Entry Date | 15 Oct 2016 |
| Source | http://www.smh.com.au/technology/gadgets-on-the-go/ifa-2016-lenovos-phab2-pro-brings-googles-project-tango-augmented-reality-to-life-20160903-gr87an.html |
