Google has announced that Project Tango will be shutting down in March of 2018. The company first launched Tango back in 2014. This was Google’s first major push into Augmented Reality.
The Evolution from Project Tango to ARCore
Project Tango was an ambitious initiative by Google aimed at bringing augmented reality (AR) to mobile devices. It required specialized hardware, including depth sensors and motion tracking cameras, to create a 3D map of the environment. This allowed for a range of applications, from gaming to interior design, where users could visualize virtual objects in real-world spaces. Despite its innovative approach, the need for specialized hardware limited its adoption.
This is not the end for AR at Google, Project Tango is being replaced by Google’s ARCore, the company recently announced their Developer Preview 2. ARCore represents a significant shift in strategy, focusing on software rather than hardware to achieve similar AR capabilities. This makes AR more accessible to a broader audience, as it can run on millions of existing Android devices without the need for additional hardware.
We’ve been working on augmented reality since 2014, with our earliest investments in Project Tango. We’ve taken everything we learned from that to build ARCore, which launched in preview earlier this year. Whereas Tango required special hardware, ARCore is a fast, performant, Android-scale SDK that enables high-quality augmented reality across millions of qualified mobile devices.
ARCore: Democratizing Augmented Reality
ARCore is designed to work on a wide range of devices, making it a more scalable solution for developers and users alike. It uses three key technologies to integrate virtual content with the real world as seen through your phone’s camera: motion tracking, environmental understanding, and light estimation. These technologies allow ARCore to detect the position and orientation of the phone as it moves, understand the structure of the environment, and estimate the lighting conditions to make virtual objects appear more realistic.
Developers can experiment with ARCore now, and we’ve seen some amazing creations from the community. ARCore also powers AR Stickers on the Pixel camera, which launched earlier this week and lets you add interactive AR characters and playful emojis directly into photos and videos to bring your favorite stories to life.
The transition from Project Tango to ARCore marks a significant milestone in the evolution of AR technology. While Tango laid the groundwork, ARCore builds on that foundation to offer a more versatile and user-friendly platform. Developers have already started to create a variety of applications, from educational tools to entertainment, leveraging ARCore’s capabilities.
You can find out more details about Google’s ARCore over at their website at the link below. Project Tango will shut down on the 1st of March 2018.
Source Google, Ars Technica
Latest Geeky Gadgets Deals
Disclosure: Some of our articles include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, Geeky Gadgets may earn an affiliate commission. Learn about our Disclosure Policy.
