How is Google ARCore different from Tango

Augmented reality is a modified version of your surroundings created by adding layers of information to the things that are around you. Google’s Project Tango (later rebranded to Tango) was initially part of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP) but it soon left ATAP in the first quarter of 2015. It went on to be established as a separate Google team.

The bedrock of the idea which led to the birth of Tango was the intention to provide a mobile device the tools it would require to navigate and perceive the world as humans do. In order to augment or modify reality for humans, the first thing it would need to learn is to understand the world as humans do. Google’s ATAP team jam-packed all the sensors it deemed necessary to obtain the information it needed into a smartphone dubbed the Peanut phone.

The ARCore project is an offspring of the same idea but it differs from Tango in certain ways.

The main parts of the technology that the two projects employed were the following:

1) Tango

a) Motion tracking technology

b) Depth perception

c) Area learning

2) ARCore

a) Motion tracking

b) Environmental understanding

c) Light estimation

Though they both stem from the same idea, Tango and ARCore have the following major differences, they are as follows:

1) Hardware

While the Tango depends more dependent on hardware and needs the device to be equipped with two extra cameras, whereas the ARCore can run on any Android 7.0 (Nougat) device or higher.

2) Spatial measurement

Another major difference is that while the ARCore has to make an estimation of a size, the Tango can precisely measure the same.

3) Supported devices

The devices that support Tango are the following:

a) The Peanut phone

b) The Yellowstone tablet

c) Lenovo Phab 2 Pro

d) Asus Zenfone AR

Out of these, only the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro and the Asus Zenfone AR were consumer products, the Peanut phone was sold primarily to research universities and early-access partners. Two were also delivered to NASA. The Yellowstone tablet was sold through the official Project Tango website.

A number of Android phones running Android 7.0 (Nougat) and higher are capable of running ARCore. Google has set a target of 100 million devices for it to achieve before the ARCore preview that will end this winter.