Image used with permission of copyright holder Google has a lot going on. The company recently unveiled Google Home, an Amazon Echo competitor; the Assistant platform that powers it; two new chat applications, Allo and Duo; a new virtual reality platform for Android; as well as Android Instant Apps, a way to stream apps without having to install them.
While these upcoming products are attracting attention, some of the more interesting projects Google is working on are shrouded in mystery. Its hardware division — ATAP, or Advanced Technology and Projects, is known for its moonshots, crazy projects that take impossible ideas and make them possible.
At Google I/O, ATAP quietly gave some updates on its most popular shots of the month: Project Jacquard, an attempt at smart clothing; The Soli project, a move towards gesture technology; and Project Ara, a truly modular smartphone. These products may not be in the hands of consumers yet — but Google has shown that the technology is definitely real and not as far away as you might think.
Google is also working on a few lesser-known projects such as coding games for kids, autonomous Android vehicles, and robots with creative impulses. Here are 6 of the coolest projects Google is cooking up.
Project Jacquard
There are times when you simply shouldn’t have your smartphone in your hand — for example, when you’re cycling or exercising. Some efforts have been made to make it easier to use our devices hands-free through voice assistants like Siri and Google Now, but they don’t always work well. Google wants to put the power of phone control into your clothes with Project Jacquard. That’s right, the threads in your clothes could soon be woven from “motion-sensing fabric” that can recognize swipes and taps as triggers for activity on your phone.
Jacquard was announced in 2015, but at I/O this year, Google gave us a demo of the first prototype in collaboration with Levi’s. The Commuter Jacket can add pins to the wearer’s folder, play the next song, and more — all with a swipe or touch of the sleeve. Google says the Levi’s Commuter jacket will be available in spring 2017, but is opening up the platform for developers to add support for their apps later this year. Soon, every clothing company will be able to weave their own garments with motion-sensing fabric, and the best part? You can machine wash your technical clothing.
You can find out more here:
Project Jacquard
Project Soli
Project Soli also revolves around the idea of hands-free control – but extends to almost any device that can integrate a Soli chip. This is another project that Google introduced last year, but it has been greatly improved since then. At I/O 2016, Google showed off that it’s miniaturized the chip, so it can now fit into something as small as a smartwatch. Soli uses radar technology that allows people to control objects with hand gestures. For example, if your speakers have a built-in Soli chip, you could theoretically change the song with a wave of your hand from across the room. Personally, it’s really amazing to see gesture control with no visible cameras or sensors.
The chip’s range extends up to 15 meters, but it can also be used when you’re really close — a Google ATAP representative controlled the smartwatch built into Soli with a hand gesture at the I/O event. The Soli development kit will be launched next year.
You can find out more here:
Project Soli
Ara project
Project Ara is perhaps the most anticipated ATAP project from Google. If you’ve ever longed for the latest in smartphone technology, but couldn’t afford to buy a new device — the Ara could be the answer. Google believes you shouldn’t upgrade your entire device just to get a better camera. Instead, why not buy the latest camera module and replace the old one from your phone? Ara makes modular phones a reality. Google makes modules — like high-quality cameras, higher-capacity batteries, secondary E-Ink displays, and high-definition speakers — that you can easily swap out from your Ara device. Unfortunately, that no longer applies to the processor and RAM, but the Ara has every intention of making modular phones mainstream.
The best demonstration at I/O 2016 was when Google’s head of engineering, Rafa Camargo, said, “OK Google, pop my camera out,” and the camera module popped out of the phone. The Project Ara development kit will be available later this year, and Google says the first Google Ara device will launch in 2017.
You can read more here:
Ara project
A robot that paints a cube
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Google is home to a number of interesting projects, including a robotic arm that painted a cube. At Google I/O 2016, a robot held a paintbrush and sprayed a large white cube with colorful Jackson Pollock-style paint drops. However, the spray was not completely random – the robot’s actions were controlled by a person using a smartphone app. As the cube rotated on its platform, the robot rotated its arm to throw paint onto its surface. The result was beautiful, and things got even more interesting as the cube picked up more colors.
This is not a consumer device that you will be able to buy, but it is an interesting demonstration of the power of robots and the ability to control robots using a smartphone.
MIT and Google bring coding to kids
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MIT and Google unveiled the next-generation kid-friendly visual coding language “Scratch” at I/O. The open-source version of the language is called “Scratch Blocks” and is based on Google’s visual programming code Blockly. The idea is to teach young children the basics of code using visual blocks that you connect horizontally or vertically. The new version is better suited for mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, and a developer preview is available now. We saw the coding language at work on the Lego set and moved the block to make the Lego set arm spin a third time.
Google and MIT hope to provide kids with apps and coding kits in the future, though it’s still research.
You can read more here:
Medium
Autonomous Android vehicle
Every year, Google challenges its fans to come up with interesting Android experiments, and this year’s winner is Al Bencom’s Autonomous Android Vehicle from San Jose, California. Bencomo has built a robot that recognizes, tracks and follows a colored object as it moves around the room. It can even avoid obstacles in its path, thanks to IR sensors. The Nexus 5X connects to the IOIO board via Bluetooth, and the phone’s camera controls the vehicle.
We saw the vehicle in action, chasing a bright green ball on a wire. Every time an obstacle appeared, the vehicle cleverly moved out of the way and found a new route. While you can’t buy this Android robot right now, it’s proof that Android phones can be used as remote controls for some pretty amazing things.
You can read more here:
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn