Lenovo will release smartphone with Google Project Tango this summer

This summer, Lenovo will release a mainstream smartphone equipped with Google Project Tango to map environments in 3D for, among other things, augmented reality applications. The phone will cost less than $500.

Lenovo and Google spent a year getting the Project Tango technology small enough to integrate into a smartphone. This has led to a smartphone that should appear worldwide in the summer of 2016. The design of the device is not yet exactly determined, but Lenovo reports that it will at least have a screen diagonal of less than 6.5 “.

Lenovo did show images of prototypes that have a vertically placed camera module at the announcement at CES. That module consists of a regular camera, a fisheye camera and depth sensors. This combination can provide the device with enough data to get a three-dimensional impression of the environment and thus create a virtual representation of spaces.

Google has previously developed a tablet with the technology. For example, during a demonstration with this device, Google showed how to place a point on the ceiling and on the floor on the camera image, after which a line was automatically drawn and the distance was given. Google also showed how the surface of a rug was given after putting dots on the corners.

Mapping spaces by simply pointing the smartphone or tablet at it could come in handy in construction, for example, but also when designing spaces using augmented reality. Google demonstrated an app that allowed users to place virtual sofas and refrigerators in the room, automatically displaying the sofa in the right perspective and not being able to be in places where, for example, a table already stood. Another application is in the field of gaming. For example, the company showed virtual pets that walked on the floor and the game Jenga virtually on a table.

Google and Lenovo simultaneously announced the App Incubator program for Tango. Developers have until February to make their ideas known. The developers with the best ideas will have the opportunity to develop their app with the help of both companies, after which it can be delivered on the smartphone as soon as it appears.

Google announced last year that it was working with Intel to equip a Project Tango phone with Intel’s RealSense. Nothing further has been announced about that collaboration. Intel now has a RealSense Development Kit for smartphones, which the company will also demonstrate at CES.