Project Tango 3D smartphones to power SPHERES.
NASA is planning to use Google's next generation 3D sensing smartphones to power its SPHERES. The smartphone which are a part of Google's Project Tango will be on a cargo spacecraft scheduled to launch on July 11.
Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES are used by NASA with an aim to take over daily chores for astronauts and handle risky duties outside of the vessel. The small soccer-ball sized robots can be guided around the space station's microgravity interior, propelled by small blasts of CO2 at about an inch per second.
NASA first sent the SPHERES to the space station in 2006, but they were just able to capture movements and nothing else. Nasa's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, has been looking for ways improve the robots and have turned to the experimental smartphones in project Tango. The smartphones comes with a motion-tracking camera and an infrared depth sensor that can detect sharp angles inside the space station and create a 3D map that lets the SPHERES navigate from one module to another.
"We wanted to add communication, a camera, increase the processing capability, accelerometers and other sensors. As we were scratching our heads thinking about what to do, we realized the answer was in our hands," Smart SPHERES project manager Chris Provencher told Reuters in an interview last week. "Let's just use smartphones. This type of capability is exactly what we need for a robot that's going to do tasks anywhere inside the space station," Provencher said. "It has to have a very robust navigation system."
Google wanted to help retailers create detailed 3D representations of their shops and letting gamers make their homes into virtual battlegrounds with its next generation Project Tango smartphones. Google has recently teamed up with LG to launch a project Tango Tablet that will be launched early next year.
Source: Reuters
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Silky Malhotra
Silky Malhotra loves learning about new technology, gadgets, and more. When she isn’t writing, she is usually found reading, watching Netflix, gardening, travelling, or trying out new cuisines. View Full Profile
