Google showed off some shiny new consumer tech products at its annual I/O conference in San Francisco this week – including the latest smartwatches and cars equipped with special versions of its Android mobile software. But the two-day event also highlighted a few experimental gadgets that hard-core gamers and geeks could love.
Among them were a 3-D tablet from Google s Advanced Technology and Projects group, known as ATAP, and a virtual reality headset made of cardboard – yup, cardboard.
Google has talked about the 3D project known as Tango before. But on Thursday, ATAP s Johnny Lee showed how the handheld tablet can be used to create a three-dimensional rendering of a room or building. It uses high-performance cameras, motion sensors, a fast processor and special software to process the data that it gathers while being carried up and down stairs, down hallways and around corners.
While the technology could have many uses, one likely application would be in mobile video games. Lee demonstrated a gaming program that would superimpose animated images on a realistic rendering of a person s surroundings – so a person holding the tablet could move through a house and see cartoon characters or objects on the screen, as if they were in the house, too.
You could make a video game where soldiers have to attack your bathtub, he suggested. Google said it hopes to make the first consumer devices available next year, through a partnership with LG.
Other projects in the works at ATAP include a digital tattoo that sticks to the skin – and can be used to unlock a wearer s smartphone – and a modular phone that s designed so users can swap in and out different hardware components, such as a high-performance camera or longer-lasting battery, depending on what they want to do.
We re a small band of pirates in a very fast ship, said ATAP chief Regina Dugan, referring to the two-year timetable she sets for completing most projects in the unit, which serves as a sort of high-octane R&D unit within Google s Android division. Dugan is a former chief of the Pentagon s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency who was recruited by Google to spark new innovation when it bought Motorola s mobile phone business. Google has now sold that business, but ATAP remains.
Meanwhile, in another room, a trio of Google engineers showed off a do-it-yourself virtual reality headset that Google engineer David Coz said originated as a 20 percent project – under Google s practice of letting workers use 20 percent of their time to pursue their own ideas.
The cardboard headset uses some Velcro, magnets and inexpensive lenses to focus the viewer s eyes on the screen of an Android smartphone. A special app – available in the Google Play store – uses the phone s accelerometer and gyroscopes to process images from Google Earth and other sources, creating an immersive, realistic view for the wearer. Or at least that s the idea; some people have reported seeing mostly a blur.
Google s notion of building a virtual reality device from a few dollars worth of cardboard and cheap parts struck some conference-goers as a funny jab at rival Facebook s recent decision to spend $2 billion for Oculus VR, a company that makes a high-end virtual reality headset for gaming.
But Coz took a respectful view during his presentation. Calling the Oculus Rift an awesome device, he said he simply wanted to see if he could spark further development of virtual reality technology by creating a device cheap enough for any home programmer to build and test their own virtual reality games and apps.
(Photo of Cardboard headset from Google)
