Google has announced that its augmented reality Project Tango platform will be discontinued on March 1st, 2018. Google’s augmented reality aspirations aren’t dead, but they’re changing.
What we covered?
Google Tango Project
Project Tango was announced in 2014, but the only hardware was a bulky developer phone. A development tablet powered by the Nvidia Tegra K1 launched several months later, but it came with a whopping $1,024 price tag. These pieces of hardware were necessary because Tango was based on having powerful sensors inside the device. Tango devices required a depth-sensing camera, IR projector, and a special motion-tracking camera.
Google managed to get two device makers to try Tango: Lenovo and Asus. It was rather telling that Google never believed in the platform enough to put it in a Nexus or Pixel device. The first Tango phone for consumers was the Lenovo Phab2 Pro, which had a gigantic 6.4-inch display with large Tango camera modules on the rear (see above). The later Asus Zenfone AR slimmed down the Tango hardware to allow for a more reasonable 5.7-inch display.
We’re turning down support for Tango on March 1, 2018. Thank you to our incredible community of developers who made such progress with Tango over the last three years. We look forward to continuing the journey with you on ARCore. https://t.co/aYiSUkgyie
— Tango (@projecttango) December 15, 2017
