3D mobile revolution ahead with Google plan to put sensors in phones and tablets

Think your smartphone is clever? Search giant Google has plans to make that little camera on the back of mobile devices not just for selfies, but part of a personal, real-time 3D mapping system that makes 250,000 measurements per second. Although it's only in the prototype stage, Google is set to launch new Android phones this year that boast a "human-like understanding of space and motion". So, what's it for?

Google's Project Tango - straight out of the company's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) division - is about doing much more with your environment. At its most basic, it's about never getting lost. Unlike Google Maps or any kind of GPS system, which rely on exterior hardware and infrastructure, such as satellites, cameras and databases stuffed with images and maps, Project Tango is about making the phone so intelligent that it continually tracks its own full 3D motion, simultaneously creating and recording a map of the environment it's being used in.

Project Tango is no app. It requires new sensor-packed hardware capable of more than a quarter of a million 3D calculations per second as it constantly updates its position and orientation. "Project Tango strives to give mobile devices a human-like understanding of space and motion through advanced sensor fusion and computer vision, enabling new and enhanced types of user experiences, including 3D scanning, indoor navigation and immersive gaming," says Johnny Chung Lee, technical program lead of the ATAP group.

One of Google's tech partners is Siegen, Germany-based PMD Technologies, which has developed a tiny 3D camera module for smartphones. "We strongly believe that the future of 3D applications is mobile," says Jochen Penne, director of business development at PMD.

"As 3D sensors start showing up in phones and tablets, those technologies will enable millions of people to capture, share and interact with the world around them in real 3D."