Google smartphone maps the world in 3D

Taking advantage of the latest research in robotics and computer vision, the search engine giant has created a prototype smartphone with customised software and hardware that enables it to create 3D maps of a user's surroundings. Every second, sensors embedded in the phone take more than a quarter of a million measurements, updating its position and orientation in real time. The device runs Android and includes development APIs to provide position, orientation and depth data to standard Android applications written in Java, C/C++, as well as the Unity Game Engine. Google says it has been working with various universities, research labs and industrial partners over the past year on the initiative, dubbed Project Tango. "Now, we're ready to put early prototypes into the hands of developers that can imagine the possibilities and help bring those ideas into reality," the firm said in a statement.