23
I
t won’t literally make the blind see but a newly revealed
phone may, among other exciting possibilities, have
the potential to one day allow blind or visually impaired
people to navigate unaided. It’s all part of an initiative,
by Google and 16 other partners, to produce a handheld
device with the ability to make 3D maps of the immediate
environment. The gadget is the product of Google’s
Advanced Technology and Projects group, ATAP.
What is a 3D map? It’s close to what your brain creates
using both of your
eyes, in order to tell
how far away different
things are. If you close
one eye, you lose your
depth perception, that
sense for how distant
things are from you and
each other. Because of
it’s depth sensor and
processor, the phone,
or Project Tango as the
prototype is referred
to, is able to estimate
distances and determine
how tall or short things
are.
In a similar roll out to
Google Glass, Project
Tango is initially
only going out to
200 programmers
and developers. They
will write software to
leverage its capabilities.
Some potential uses,
beyond a visual aid
include: Scanning a
room to find a lost item, or catalog inventory, scanning of
perpetrators as they commit crimes to aid identification
and, recording the details of crime scenes and vehicular
accidents. The phone could also be a tool for interior
designers, architects and ordinary people planning to
remodel, buy new furniture or appliances or decide how
much paint they need to purchase for a room. You could
even scan objects like a statue or tool or a special part
that you can’t find a replacement for and reproduce it with
a 3D printer.
One interesting use that someone proposed was that
the phone could be used by people in a smoky, burning
building to find their way to an exit. For that matter it
should prove extremely useful in rescue missions where
people are trapped and to “see” in tight enclosed spaces
around your home.
Of course the use of the
phone as a visual aid is
one of the most exciting
possibilities. By scanning
for physical obstacles or
dangers such as people,
chairs, holes and steps, the
phone, if worn around a
user’s neck, may be able to
give the visually impaired
new mobility. For example
it could tell a blind person
that they are halfway up a
staircase or about to step off
the curb or that the doorway
is 2 steps forward and 3
steps left, mind the table on
the left.
The phone scans its
surroundings at a rate of
250,000 3D measurements
per second using an infrared
depth sensor. It comes with
one main 4 mega pixel
camera to sense color and
another lower detail camera
to sense motion. It’s a
simple process to include
better cameras in the phone
but right now the focus is on building amazing new ways
to leverage this first step. The technology incorporated
into the phone comes from the video gaming and robotics
industry.
Project Tango is not scheduled for release at the moment
but it’s exciting to envisage the kind of capabilities it might
bring. Once we have it in hand as always, we’ll probably
wonder how we ever managed without it.
A phone to give
“sight”
Fitzgerald Scott, MBA
to the blind
