Google has officially announced its Project Tango tablet development kit, which consists of an amazingly powerful tablet with NVIDIA's Tegra K1 processor under the hood.
The Project Tango powerhouse will sport a 7-inch display, but it remains unknown at this point just what type it will be or what resolution it will have. Under the hood, this beast of a tablet will pack NVIDIA's Tegra K1 quad-core processor (not to be confused with the dual-core 64-bit Denver), a solid 4GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage capacity, motion-tracking cameras, and integrated depth sensing. It will have LTE support and run Android KitKat.
On the down side, this device will cost a hefty $1024, and will only be available for developers later this year, in limited quantities. Considering that it's so high-tech, it's understandable why it will not be available to the general public. It's an experimental product for developers, holding immense potential as a reference and development tool.
"The Tango devkit is the first mobile device to move computer vision out of the research lab and to be widely distributed to mobile developers," writes NVIDIA. "It's also the first device to overcome previous limitations of computing power and inadequate algorithms and standard sensors."
The device will further boast a front-facing camera with a 120-degree viewing angle, as well as a 4-megapixel rear camera with 2 micrometer pixels, i.e. the same pixel size as HTC's much-touted UltraPixel camera. As previously mentioned, it will also boast a motion-tracking rear camera and an integrated depth sensor.
"As a result, it can understand space and motion the way humans do, enabling interior spaces to be quickly mapped in three dimensions, allowing the creation of applications that blend real and virtual objects," NVIDIA further explains.
You can sign up here to learn more about the Google Tango Tablet and receive notifications when new information becomes available, but you have to be a developer in order to actually purchase the device when it launches. To sign up for more updates, you will have to provide your full name and a business or student email address. No personal email addresses are allowed, which means that your Gmail, Yahoo, Live, or others such won't do the trick. In the meantime, check out the video below to get a better idea of this ambitious project.
