"Apple's iPhone opened the era of smart phones, and Google then opened Android to make smart phones really prosperous. After Android, a large number of mobile phone manufacturers quickly launched products through Android, arm architecture and Qualcomm / MediaTek's reference design, and grew rapidly from 2010 to 2015. But since last year, with smartphone shipments peaking, almost all mobile phone manufacturers have felt pressure. It also adopts the andorid operating system, arm architecture chips and the solutions of mature chip manufacturers to make the models of various manufacturers highly homogeneous.
In this context, some manufacturers have just begun to prepare for advanced technology research and development on mobile phones. For example, Huawei's long-term promotion of Hisilicon SOC and the establishment of Xiaomi's exploration laboratory are all looking for the next innovation beyond mobile phones and mobile phones.
At this time, Google, which created the Android ecosystem, once again provides a good model. Compared with Google x, atap is Google's "think tank laboratory" on mobile devices. Their short-term and medium-term projects ensure continuous innovation and experience upgrading on Android Software and hardware. Mobile phone manufacturers can't copy a Google x, but atap may be an ideal model for advanced R & D laboratories.
Google I / O 2016 has come to an end. At this conference, Project Tango, project soli and project ara all released re updates. You can not only see the prototype machine, but also see the progress of these R & D projects in landing cooperation. Maybe we can buy these products in some ways next year. Google atap once again pushed everyone's expectations to a climax.
Creation and operation of Google atap
Compared with Google x, the earliest innovation department established by Google, Google atap is smaller and faster.
Atap originally belonged to Motorola and made important contributions to the development of moto X. Google acquired Motorola and transferred it to Lenovo, but retained this department, which is why atap has always focused on the mobile field.
The overall atap R & D project focuses on improving the interactive experience of users. In the project cycle, if a research project is not realized as a product within two years, the project is likely to be replaced by a new project. This operation concept originates from Regina Dugan, the first director of atap, who is known as the female devil in the scientific and technological field. She was once the head of drpra (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). DARPA attaches special importance to the practical application of technology.
Dugan believes that an ideal atap project is the product of the combination of technology and science. It needs to create marketable finished products within two years on the basis of a certain number of solid research.
According to an earlier report of fortune on atap: the project workflow of atap is to find a project with disruptive innovation in science and engineering. After the project is approved, atap will start looking for foreign aid on the basis of the original core research team, expand the team size of the project and jointly form a special research team. It may include talents from enterprises, governments, industries and academia all over the world, and their scientific research ability can be comparable to that of university research institutes. This mode of operation enables atap to maintain a high yield in the scale of 75 people.
Project Tango: a sharp weapon on Google VR / AR
Project Tango is known as Google's mysterious weapon in the fields of AR and VR.
Project Tango includes three core technologies: motion tracking, depth perception and area learning. The integration of these technologies is to perceive the surrounding environment for users in real time, conduct 3D modeling, and improve the experience on AR / VR. Both Intel and Qualcomm joined the research and development of this project in the later stage. As for the technical details of Project Tango, Lei Feng net (official account for search "Lei Feng net") has recently published a column explaining this part.
Project Tango started with Johnny Lee's famous work and realized head motion tracking with Wii. On this basis, feature tracking is derived, that is, the collector will identify feature points according to the movement of azimuth, correctly match the feature points, and then complete coordinate conversion to realize three-dimensional motion tracking. When the device is turned off, the area learning mode allows the device to remember and store according to the previous tracking. When the device is restarted, the accumulated error in motion tracking can be continuously corrected according to the memory. The third core technology, depth sensing, mainly relies on the third-party depth sensor to output "point cloud" data, which is spliced with the trajectory data of motion tracking in real time.
Based on the above technical basis, users can use the Project Tango equipment to measure and record the dimension of an area or space, that is, when we want to add furniture but don't know whether it can fit, we don't need a tape measure. Just pick up the Project Tango equipment and sweep around the house, and all the data will be automatically presented in front of you.
A more interesting application scope of Project Tango is the game field. Through the perception of the surrounding environment, it can provide 360 degree scenario simulation, allowing users to play virtual games in the real environment in this way of augmented reality. Conversely, Project Tango can also create levels for the game according to the user's familiar environment, rather than creating a completely virtual environment. This augmented reality function is similar to hololens released by Microsoft last year.
In addition, the Project Tango device can also sound or remind users according to the perceived environment. This potential function can help the blind, the elderly and people with vision loss. Intel has used realsense cameras on some UAVs, so that these UAVs can automatically avoid obstacles without human control by using Project Tango devices. At the same time, they do not need Wi Fi and Bluetooth connections to improve the control range.
The first public appearance of the Project Tango prototype was in February 2014. At that time, it was only a white mobile phone with a built-in camera, 3D sensor and chip, but the mobile phone was not sold to the market. In May 2015, Google stores in the United States officially launched a Project Tango tablet with a screen size of 7 inches, equipped with an NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor, 128GB of storage space, 4960ma battery capacity, and support Wi Fi and 4G networks. These configurations are no different from ordinary tablets. Its most special place is the 4 megapixel camera behind it. It has sensors such as motion and depth of field, and can perceive space like human eyes.
In July of the same year, its technology was applied to NASA's spherical robot and sent to the international space station.
Google and Lenovo also announced a cooperation on Project Tango at CES this year. It is understood that this project refers to the establishment of a three-dimensional space model of the surrounding world in real time by using special cameras, sensors and chips on Android phones. The final screen size of the device will be less than 6.5 inches and the selling price will be less than $500. It is reported that the smartphone will be available in July.
At this year's MWC, Google and Lenovo demonstrated a new feature of Project Tango mobile phone - indoor navigation. Taking the Catalan Museum as an example, with the help of customized software and Project Tango sensing technology, users can quickly see where their friends are visiting in the device, and quickly switch the waypoint information of the next destination.
On the recent Google I / O, atap team demonstrated the latest improvements of Project Tango. The measurement application installed on Tango can identify edges and measure the size of windows, tables and other objects. The application can retain relevant images, but also generate charts for other purposes, such as determining the appropriate size of tablecloths or curtains. There is also an application that allows you to place a dinosaur model in the room, and then click the zoom in button to control the size of the dinosaur model. Augmented reality can also be obtained through other systems, which is mobile, which can make more people experience, such as Google board virtual reality helmet and the new high-quality virtual reality platform daydream.
A foreign media spoke highly of Project Tango after experiencing it. Project Tango may be the technology that can most change the mobile application scope of Android system.
Project ara: a new way to update mobile phones
Project ara is a legacy project of Motorola after it was acquired by Google. It aims to modularize various parts of the mobile phone, so that the mobile phone can be upgraded more conveniently and at low cost according to user needs. This technology allows consumers to freely select, replace or even remove any components, including cameras, screens, keyboards, batteries and other common components of mobile phones, so that consumers can easily replace a single faulty or outdated component, so as to reduce e-waste and prolong the life cycle of mobile phones. However, project ara was questioned at the beginning of the project because of the limitations of shape design and brand concept, as well as the compatibility between different components.
This modular mobile phone will have a fixed "skeleton", and the upper module is fixed by permanent electroplated magnet without any snap or rotating shaft and other parts. When the magnetism is turned on, the module will fit strongly with the mobile phone motherboard. When the magnetism is turned off, the suction will be reduced, and the user can replace the module. Each module will be developed by different developers. Google will provide online and offline trading platforms for users to purchase. Each module can have different functions. On the basis of following the corresponding technical specifications, hardware manufacturers can design modules with different functions, such as detecting blood oxygen concentration, heart rate, etc.
On April 10, 2014, Google released version 0.1 of project ara's module Developer Kit (MDK), and started running an ara modular mobile phone at the subsequent developer conference. Although it crashed in the middle of operation, it at least showed the outside world that project ara has achieved certain development.
In January 2015, at the second developer conference of project ARA, Google officially launched the second version of MDK module development kit and demonstrated the latest version of spiral2 prototype, which supports 3G modem, RF wireless bus and uses ASIC chip instead of previous FPGA. In this version, project ara modular mobile phone has 11 module models with different functions, The appearance also looks more colorful.
After years of research and development, at this year's I / O conference, Google finally confirmed that the developer version of project ara will be launched by the end of this year and plans to launch it to the consumer market in 2017. However, different from the previous statement, the CPU, memory and screen can not be replaced, which greatly reduces the playability of project ARA and has been questioned again. Can project ARA, which can not replace the CPU, be called a real modular mobile phone.
Project soli: interactive experience of space separation operation
At last year's I / O conference, project soli made its debut. The operating principle is to use micro radar to capture subtle actions, which can bring extremely accurate virtual control to wearable devices, and even bring rich action and gesture interfaces to mobile devices, with a refresh rate of up to 10000 FPS. For example, the user can perform the click operation through the kneading between two fingers, or scroll and adjust the options through the friction and sliding of thumb and middle finger. Of course, the user can also detect fist clenching or finger crossing.
Since there is no need for large lenses and sensors, the final version of project soli is only the size of mini SD card, which can not only be placed inside the smart watch, but also provides broad prospects for mass production and equipment development.
In I / o2016, the project members of project soli demonstrated how he used the action to control the time with a very small dial, and also showed how they stuffed the radar into the watch in the past year. Through the demonstration, you can clearly see how the watch will react when the hand is close to the radar sensor and gesture operation in the space.
Although project soli is still a long way from general consumer products, Google will launch a new dev kit based on the current soli next year, allowing developers to conceive more interesting and conceptual applications.
Project jacquard: Turning clothing fabric into a touch pad
Project jacquard is a project that embeds human-computer interaction interface into textiles (i.e. clothes). Its secret is that ordinary wires and conductive wires are interspersed during weaving. Because clothes are the most primitive but the most natural "wearable device", Ivan poupyrev, technical director of atap, has a vision for the future that our clothes can communicate well with other online worlds. For example, when you are ready to go to work in the morning and start wearing your coat, your mobile phone will automatically Book Uber for you; When you wear running shoes, the shoes themselves can help you automatically track your movement data; You can unlock the mobile phone and give voice commands to it by sliding on the sleeve of the clothes.
At last year's I / O conference, atap demonstrated special fabrics that make clothes possible to become touch panels. In the on-site demonstration, we saw the possibility that it can be used to switch on and off lights, control media players, and even act as a touch pad, using low-power Wi Fi as the medium to operate the device. At I / o this year, atap announced that it would cooperate with Levi to launch the first project jacquard smart clothing next year.
However, project jacquard throw faces many tests, such as whether project jacquard materials can withstand repeated torture of washing and ironing, whether the price of clothes made of project jacquard materials can be accepted by the public, and whether such a function can subvert the fashion trend and be loved by everyone.
In addition to the above four projects of concern, atap has rich new project outputs every year through external cooperation. Currently
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