Everything You Need To Know About Google's 'Project Tango' 3D Smartphone

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OK. So a 4MP camera doesn't sound as great as the 13MP shooter found on the Galaxy S5. But when mated with a special combination RGB and IR sensor, it can definitely stretch the atmospheric scope to new heights. Project Tango's internals make it possible to achieve a full look at spatial awareness and the perception of depth, while feeding all data to the processor and transfering it to apps via set of APIs. The sensors are capable of tracking over a quarter-million 3D measurements every second.

Wait…what? Sounds quite complex. However, Project Tango does operate on Google’s mobile OS and provides development APIs to support Android apps built on C/C++, Java, and the Unity Game Engine—obtaining data about the phone’s depth tracking, orientation, and position. Exactly what version of Android remains unknown, though judging by the sketch it looks to be Jelly Bean or KitKat.

Simply put, the handset develops a visual map of any room by taking all measurement data and producing a 3D model of the space around you. Its sensors read a room by tracking all motion on the device itself and mapping the environment. Some of the pre-developed Project Tango apps have the capability of layering a distance heat map and help route paths of movement down by creating a third-dimensional rendering.

Through augmented reality and room mapping, the smartphone can basically turn any room into a game world. “Imagine that you scan a small section of your living room and then are able to generate a little game world in it,” says one developer who’s worked on the project. The ability of mapping in-game textures onto personal structures sounds freaking insane. We're talking Minecraft, only in real time.

With its ability to capture the dimensions of a house, room, or any other foreign area, Project Tango certainly features the technology to assist the visually impaired. The device can be utilized to map out an indoor location and help a disabled person navigate through obstacles via auditory cues. Groundbreaking stuff here.

Take Black Friday for example—the biggest shopping holiday of the year where most casual consumers turn all slit-throat over unbeatable sales. Google's handset has the potential to alleviate such pains by giving users access to scan a store or shopping mall and determining whether it’s worth entering. Not to mention its AR capabilities can have huge implications for buyers with the simplest actions like scanning an item to compare prices or mapping out a living room when furniture shopping made possible in the near future.

Anything over 5 inches is normally categorized as a phablet. Not Project Tango. No large screen real estate or digital stylus here. Google’s handset is a smartphone, a ridiculously advanced one at that.

According to Google, the objective of Project Tango is "to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion." The company hopes to achieve this “through advanced sensor fusion and computer vision.” The learning curve won't be as simplistic as navigating through Android, but we're not talking rocket science here.

The support is definitely there for Google's secret mobile project. And with Silicon Valley start-up Movidius developing processors capable of deciphering data from sensors and cameras, we anticipate more independent software developers to jump on board.

Not everyone can be the cool kid with the awesome 3D smartphone. Similar to the Google Glass launch, the company is reserving its first 200 prototypes for developers only, while setting aside a few for new apps they haven’t thought of yet. So if you want in on one, better step your programming game up. All units are schedule to ship by March 14th.