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"It\u2019s fun to watch everyone gushing about and heaping praise on Google's Project Tango, the world\u2019s first 3D-mapping smartphone. The phone looks so unusual and the images it displays are otherworldly.\nPersonally, I\u2019m not that impressed \u2014 yet.\nSee also: 20 Searches Made Ridiculous by Google Autocomplete\nAs soon as I saw Google's video (below), I recognized the familiar look of the 3D mesh mapping system, most likely based on infrared or near infrared image capture technology. The Tango video even shows off the board responsible for the 3D image capture. It reminded me of the pencil-thin Capri 3D sensor I saw at CES in 2013. It\u2019s not the same board, mind you. Capri came from PrimeSense, the company also responsible for Microsoft\u2019s early Kinect sensor tech and now owned by Apple, which pretty much rules out a collaboration with Google.\n\nA highlight of Google's Tango video is its ability to paint the real world in a rainbow-colored 3D map in real time. Amazing, right? Meh. Over the years, I\u2019ve seen a number of 3D systems like Tango, PrimeSense Capri and Kinect. Whenever the companies wanted to demonstrate how the 3D sensor worked, they showed the 3D mesh \u2014 essentially what the sensor saw on a big screen. The effect was always cool \u2014 thousands of tiny little dots curving over walls \u2014 but it kind of inverted the whole point of a 3D sensor system: to ingest a highly granular view of your environment (possibly including you). Then, it would use that to help you manipulate an interface or the immersive 3D world on screen; in some cases, it combined 3D virtual worlds with the real world. \n\nWanna know how accurate the new #Xbox One Kinect is? Check out how well it sees my face. pic.twitter.com/F8HybDzA2R\n\u2014 Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) May 21, 2013\n\nA couple of years ago, I visited Microsoft Research, where I was shown how a device called the Beamatron could bathe a real world with 3D infrared light. It then used it to project a virtual car onto the ground, with the help of a 3D projector and a motorized theatrical light system. Then, I used an Xbox 360 controller to drive that colorful, yet completely illusionary car around the room and over objects as though it really existed. In other words, the car reacted like it was driving up the side of a tilted box, rolling sideways down an incline and running into a real wall \u2014 even it wasn't physically there.\nGoogle, however, is doing something odd with Tango: Shoving all the 3D mapping tech inside the phone and onto a 4.5-inch screen. As it reads the world in front of it, you're still staring at the tiny screen. (As one demonstration showed, it creates a virtual environment that you can \u201Cwalk through\".) At least with Kinect's Xbox One, you can look at your giant HDTV screen. And instead of walking around while staring at a tiny screen \u2014 and possibly walking right into something because you\u2019re  not seeing the real world in front of you \u2014 you can kind of walk in place while the big screen does the hard work of moving you forward through the virtual world.\nTango, which comes from Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, is just a research project and there is no telling what the invited developers will do with these sensors. I bet many of them have been thinking about the potential of embedded 3D-sensing technology for years. In fact, when I spoke to PrimeSense at CES in 2013, employees told me that Capri could fit anywhere, including inside smartphones (they even showed it working \u2014 Jerry-rigged \u2014 with a tablet). It\u2019s clearly a common goal, and much is to be derived from your phone actually \u201Cseeing\u201D the world around you.\nFor example, if someone created a wearable holder that puts Tango on your chest and points out its sensors, it could alert you to danger ahead. It would, for instance, see an oncoming car or out-of-control bicyclist before you \u2014 and vibrate to warn you.\nThis was Primesense's tiny Capri 3D sensor system. Apple now owns the company.\n\n\n\nYou could point the phone at a bunch of IKEA parts and Tango could literally point you to the ones you need to use next to build that bookcase. But do you really need your phone to do these things? Or would that technology work better in, say, Google Glass?\nMy point is that Google has gotten a lot of press and mileage by putting the sensor technology in something people recognize: a phone. But that seems like the least practical place for it, since it requires you to spend even more time staring at the screen. \nIt\u2019s also worth remembering that the technology is not new or unique to Google. 3D Environmental mapping, whether in a self-driving car or a gaming system, is out there in the wild, keeping that Google car from running into a wall and letting the Xbox One know if your heart is beating or not.\nMy hope is that Apple takes note and applies its PrimeSense technology to something more practical, like the next version of Apple TV.\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/02/21/google-project-tango-op-ed/>