The ongoing developments over the last 12 months in the project aimed at making the 3D technology even more mobile. Reducing power consumption, minimizing calibration complexity and optimizing form factor, while not sacrificing data quality, now enable mobil3d devices like smartphones with integrated pmd 3D time-of-flight depth sensing.
At Google I/O 2015, a new Project Tango smartphone development platform powered by a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 810 processor was announced. The integrated time-of-flight 3D camera from pmd senses depth all by itself, just by measuring how long it takes for light to shoot out, hit an object, and come back. As no baseline is required, it can fit in a very small space, which in turn makes integration intospace-constrained phone designs easier.The development platform will be available for purchase in Q3 2015. "The cooperation with Google and Qualcomm will speed up the adoption of the Tango technology in the market, so we're eager to see those devices in all our pockets en masse very soon", said Bernd Buxbaum, CEO of pmd.
A recent realization of depth sensing as it is used in Project Tango is made available by pmd in form of the reference design CamBoard pico flexx. This is a stand-alone USB-connected device, which implements the same depth sensing technology as it is used for example in Project Tango. "Giving developers a tool to take a glimpse at things ahead was our goal", said Jochen Penne, Director Business Development at pmd. Pre-orders for the CamBoard pico flex can be submitted via pmdtec.com/picoflexx.