Google’s Project Tango, which is detailed in a YouTube video, combines robotics and a number of cameras to capture the dimensions of a room and the objects placed in it. Audio cues would then be able to communicate this information to a blind or vision impaired user. This would provide a level of detail previously unseen in indoor mapping services.
While mapping outside is relatively easy using GPS technology, mapping indoor environments poses much more of a challenge. There are various indoor mapping projects out there, including Google Indoor Maps however, these technologies rely on the environment being the same each day. Google Indoor Maps, for instance can provide turn-by-turn directions within an art gallery while a Project Tango would be able to tell a user where a chair is placed and provide directions around it.
As with most smartphone technologies, the magic is in what apps make use of it. In this case, a Project Tango phone could help a user locate items in a supermarket or find a sofa that fits in their living room.
“What if you could capture the dimensions of your home simply by walking around with your phone before you went furniture shopping?” the Project Tango site reads. “What if directions to a new location didn’t stop at the street address?
“What if you never again found yourself lost in a new building? What if the visually-impaired could navigate unassisted in unfamiliar indoor places? What if you could search for a product and see where the exact shelf is located in a super-store?”
As the device is currently in the prototype phase, in the coming months Google intends to make the smartphone available to developers to allow them to build new apps using the device’s three dimensional mapping abilities.
Google is not alone in seeking to address the challenges of indoor navigation. Researchers at the University of New South Wales announced last year that they were working on the Simplified Information Mobility and Orientation project which seeks to create an app that will enable blind and vision impaired users to receive navigational information on their smartphone or tablet for indoor spaces such as shopping centres and museums.
As Project Tango gets closer to being released we will keep you informed of the apps being developed for it that will help people with disabilities.
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