Important Information Before You Buy

1. Important Information Before You Buy

   The Tango Tablet Development Kit is intended for developers, not consumers. Please be aware that the tablet is not a consumer-oriented device. These tablets are designed to enable software professionals to develop for the platform. The tablet has known issues and will receive regular updates which may modify the device's functionality as the platform evolves. By purchasing this device, you acknowledge you understand this risk.

   The Tango Tablet Development Kit is available in limited quantities, offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and comes with a 1-year, limited warranty. See details in the Google Store’s Warranty Center.

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   Please review the following information before purchasing:

   • Terms of Service
   • Project Tango Development Kit User Guide
   • Project Tango Development Kit Safety and Regulatory Information
   • Refund Policy

Tango Data Handling

1. Project Tango Data Handling

   New experiences with Tango

   Tango brings a new kind of awareness to the Android device platform by adding depth sensors, advanced computer vision and image processing. The goal is to give mobile devices a human-like understanding of space and motion by using three core technologies: motion tracking, area learning, and depth perception.

   This means that a Tango device can track its own movement and orientation through 3D space. Walk around with a device and move it forward, backward, up, down, or tilt it in any direction, and it can tell you where it is and which way it's facing. It's similar to how a mouse works, but instead of moving around on a flat surface, the world is your mousepad.

   Human beings also learn to recognize their environment by noticing the features around them; a doorway, a staircase, the way to the nearest restroom. Walk around a building with a Tango device and it can do something similar.

   The depth data allows an application to understand the distance of visible objects to the device. A game might want to detect when the user is approaching a wall or other object in the area and have that be part of the gameplay. By combining depth perception with motion tracking, you can also measure distances between points in an area that aren't in view at the same time as you move between them.

    

   How Motion Tracking works

   Motion Tracking adds capabilities to understand the movement of your device while you use an app. Motion Tracking uses cameras and sensors such as the accelerometer, but does not save any images or send information over the network.

   The gyroscope and accelerometers are used in a similar manner to how Android detects if the device is in a portrait or landscape orientation, but Tango also uses the wide angle camera to estimate rotation and linear acceleration more accurately. This is done using a type of pattern recognition that looks for moving objects. For example, if you took a photo of a building from far away and then took another photo from closer up, it would be possible to calculate the distance the camera moved based on the change in size and position of the building in the photos.

   Motion tracking does not understand the actual area around it. Every time you start a new motion tracking session, the tracking starts over and reports its position relative to its most recent starting position. This limitation is addressed by the next core technology, area learning.

   The Tango SDK website has a more technical description of Motion Tracking.

    

   How Area Learning works

   Area Learning uses your device’s camera and Android’s Location Services to refine your indoor position. This service gathers visual features of a physical space—the edges, corners, other unique features—so it can recognize that physical location again later. Areas that are more visually interesting, with furniture and doors and patterns on the floor or walls, are easier to recognize than empty rooms with white walls.

   A Tango device can use what it learned about an area in the past to help it understand what it is seeing now. To do this it stores a mathematical description of the visual features it has identified inside a searchable index on the device. This allows the device to quickly match what it currently sees against what it has seen before without any cloud services. This information is also not accessible by other apps without your permission.

   When a Tango device has learned an area, there are some key things it can do to improve upon the information provided by motion tracking alone:

   • Correct for minor errors in location accuracy that accumulate during prolonged motion tracking by recognizing its position within a known physical area
   • Quickly orient and position itself within a previously learned area
   • Enable apps to provide continuity as physical locations are repeatedly visited over time.

   The Tango SDK website has a more technical description of Area Learning.

    

   How Depth Perception works

   Tango devices are equipped with integrated 3D sensors that measure the distance from the device to objects in the real world. Depth data can also be associated with the color image data to create a depthmap, which can be used for photo editing in unique ways such as refocusing an image after it was taken. Current depth sensors are designed to work best indoors at moderate distances of 0.5 to 4 meters.

   Because the technology relies on viewing near-infrared light using the device's camera, there are some situations where accurate depth perception is difficult. Areas lit with light sources high in IR like sunlight or incandescent bulbs, or objects that do not reflect IR light cannot be sensed accurately. Tango devices use near-infrared light, which is just outside of what humans can detect as “red”, so the sensors can measure distances to objects without shining a visible light that would be distracting to people. These devices do not contain longwave-infrared sensors that are typically used for night vision or heat sensing.

   The Tango SDK website has a more technical description of Depth Perception.

    

   How Tango knows your location

   Tango is complementary to the traditional types of location data used by Google, with the addition of the motion tracking camera, area learning, and depth sensor. Applications may then collect and process this information about your actual location to provide new users experiences based on your location or device movement.

   Your location is approximated by using this information from your device:

   1. GPS: This uses satellites and knows your location within a few meters.
   2. WiFi: The location of nearby WiFi networks.
   3. Cell tower: Your connection to a cellular network can be accurate up to a few thousand meters.
   4. Motion tracking: Your location can be improved with an accelerometer, compass, gyroscope and barometer in your phone.
   5. Area learning: This uses pattern recognition observed by the camera to recognize previously visited locations.
   6. Depth sensing: The device may measure distances to objects in an area to further refine the estimated location.

    

   If Tango isn’t sure about your location

   You’ll see a light blue circle around your location in Tango Area Manager. You may be anywhere within it and it likely indicates that you are in a space that has not been previously visited by your device.

    

   To change your location settings for Project Tango apps

   Follow these steps on your Tango device:

   1. Navigate to Settings > Tango > Permissions
   2. Touch the ‘Area Learning’ tab to see the list of apps that currently have permissions to use these corresponding capabilities.
   3. Touch the ‘Revoke’ button next to the app you want to revoke access from.
   4. Touch confirm and the app will disappear from the list. To restore access, simply launch the app again and accept the opt-in agreement when presented

    

Tango Compliance Documenation

1. Tango Compliance Documentation

   • Yellowstone Declaration of Compliance