Google’s I/O was home to some pretty interesting announcement. And this was one of the more interesting ones. The company has announced that it is working on a detailed indoor location positioning technology that could seriously change how things work. The company is using the Tango 3D sensing computer Vision Tech to develop a kind of GPS that could literally let you navigate indoors with closed eyes.
Clay Bavor, speaking at Google’s I/O conference today, said:
One thing we’ve seen clearly is that AR is most powerful when it’s tightly coupled to the real world, and the more precisely the better. That’s why we’ve been working with the Google Maps team on a service that can give devices access to very precise location information indoors.
The system doesn’t wok how you would usually expect it to work — that is by satellite communication. Nu-uh. That stuff isn’t even feasible when you get inside a house — not unless you can have these little satellites hanging up by the roof!! Instead, it works by leveraging a Tango camera which is capable of triangulating position based upon the distinct visual features in the room.
The service is called VPS, and as Google describes it, it helps your smartphone become a sort of an extra-sensory, paranormal dog. Not now maybe, but that is where the company sees the tech going. As Bavor puts it,
Imagine in the future your phone could just take you to that exact screwdriver and point it out to you on the shelf.
There are not time frames for a public launch but Google did say that the tech was already working.
And yes, the device could indeed be used to help those with visual disabilities. VPS could be deployed through an audio interface and used to guide the, while they are indoors. Meanwhile, what has been confirmed, is the fact that VPS tech will become an essential part of Google Lens, which was announced by Google earlier in the day.
