Category: Project Tango

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iStaging and PIXERS Partner on Tango Compatible Interior Design

In an announcement today, iStaging, a Taiwanese-based startup that uses augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) for interior design has partnered with PIXERS, an interior personalization specialist.

The collaboration will see the iStaging app utilise PIXARS products, enabling customers to try out infinite design configurations for their own personalization ideas. PIXERS products include decorative walls that can be fully personalized and applied on any flat surface at home, the office or any other space, thanks to a flexible self-adhesive material unique to the company.

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“We’ve been experimenting with VR for a while now, but personalization of virtual interiors is a totally new area,” said Mateusz Mentlewicz, CMO at PIXERS. “iStaging has a system that turns PIXERS’ products automatically into 3D and AR content. That allows us to provide our customers with an exceptionally personalized experience when they do a makeover of their living or work space

iStaging’s technology is markerless, eliminating the need to place a catalogue or a piece of paper on the floor to indicate the position of a piece of furniture. The app will be able to recognise different surfaces — walls, ceilings, floors — which will enable professional designers, DIY enthusiasts, and design aficionados to decorate homes from top to bottom.

“At iStaging, augmented reality and virtual reality are not buzzwords or something fancy. We create technologies that are useful in real life, and in this way it makes a big difference for furniture and real estate businesses,” said Kevin Basset, iStaging’s Head of Marketing. “By teaming up with PIXERS, we’re looking to enhance the user experience and provide their customers with a tool to make better purchasing decisions.”

Google’s Project Tango has been displayed extensively over the past year and PIXERS will be one of the first retailers adopting the technology. iStaging’s app is also fully compatible with Tango, engineered to work with the first Tango-enabled smartphone, the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, set for release later this year

The iStaging app can be downloaded for both iOS and Android platforms, and for any future announcements keep reading VRFocus.

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Lenovo’s Project Tango Phone Reportedly Launching in November

Lenovo’s Project Tango Phone Reportedly Launching in November

It looks like the Pixel and Pixel XL aren’t the only reality-altering phones that Google will be launching this year.

According to the company’s VP of Virtual Reality, Clay Bavor, Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro, will be launching in November. Bavor reportedly said as much to CNET in an interview from last week’s Made By Google event in California. We’ve reached out to Lenovo itself to confirm Google’s comments.

The Phab 2 Pro will be the first phone to support Google’s Project Tango tech, allowing new capabilities for augmented reality apps by using four depth-sensing rear-mounted cameras. The phone is expected to retail for $499.

Project Tango goes above and beyond what you’re seeing in Pokemon Go; the cameras can scan a room and use that data to project virtual images onto walls and floors. Whereas the monster-catching phenomenon simply puts a virtual overlay on top of what’s captured on-camera, Project Tango’s images will appear as if they were actually in the world around them, allowing you to walk around virtual models, get closer to them, and have them react to the physical environment.

Originally, we expected the phone to be out in September, though that obviously didn’t happen. November is also expected to see the launch of Google’s own Pixel phones, which are the first handsets to support the company’s new Daydream mobile VR ecosystem. The search engine giant’s own headset, Daydream View, will also be launched around this time. As far as we know, the Phab 2 Pro will not be supporting Daydream.

Project Tango could be a vital piece of the Daydream puzzle in the future, especially considering that its depth sensing capabilities might present a potential solution for positional tracking in a mobile VR headset. Bavor himself noted that the two are collaborating when he revealed Daydream earlier in the year, but a phone that supports both mobile VR and the advanced camera system seems some way off.

In the meantime, check out some of the apps that will launch on the Phab 2 Pro.