<p>When technology develops as fast as it does today, the biggest problem can be just seeing what the possibilities are. I think thats what Googles new Tango project is all about. Although there is prototype hardware for this futuristic smartphone, the real idea is to pack a lot of new capabilities into a smartphone case and turn developers loose to see what software might be produced for it. What comes out of Tango could mark the smartphones next big innovation.</p><p>Tango grows out of Googles Advanced Technology and Projects group, and you can get an idea what Google is up to by taking a look at the man leading it. John Chung Lee was involved in virtual reality at Carnegie Mellon University and went on to work with Microsoft on its Kinect motion input controllers for Xbox gaming consoles and PCs. At Google, Lee is trying to build a phone that is aware of the space around it, a kind of 3-D smartphone that can not only sense location on a flat map but learn and interact with whatever space the user enters.</p><p>Visual maps</p><p>To make this happen, Google has developed partnerships with sixteen universities and research organizations to tap the latest work in computer vision and robotics. ATAP itself is headed by Regina Dugan, whose experience at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency gave her abundant experience with futuristic ideas. If you think your current smartphone is packed with high tech, consider that the Tango prototype is designed to map the environment around it by taking 250,000 3-D measurements every second. Throw in computer vision technologies along with compass and gyros and you can create multi-dimensional visual maps.</p><p><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/02/3661563/paul-gilster-googles-tango-project.html">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26383031">Google&#039;s Project Tango: 3D mapping on a smartphone</a> (BBC News)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dG0xCh6Az1YQs_M9nmmrkIsbMx-tM&authuser=0&ned=us">3 additional articles.</a></p>