Does release of ARcore means that there will be no updates on TangoSDK?
There was no update TangoSDK for few months but on the other hand, if I unzip Google Constructor APK, I see it is built with SDK none other than Google has.
Is Google Tango dead?
1k views Asked by Luboš V. At
3
There are 3 answers
0
On
To help confirm Wendelin's answer, I found running the that if you forget to install the arcore-preview.apk to your device you will see an error of
E/Tango: Java version of Tango Service not found, falling back to tangoservice_d.
E/art: No implementation found for int com.google.atap.tango.TangoJNINative.Initialize(android.content.Context) (tried Java_com_google_atap_tango_TangoJNINative_Initialize and Java_com_google_atap_tango_TangoJNINative_Initialize__Landroid_content_Context_2)
com.google.ar.core.examples.java.helloar D/AndroidRuntime: Shutting down VM
com.google.ar.core.examples.java.helloar E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
Process: com.google.ar.core.examples.java.helloar, PID: 21663
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: No implementation found for int com.google.atap.tango.TangoJNINative.Initialize(android.content.Context) (tried Java_com_google_atap_tango_TangoJNINative_Initialize and Java_com_google_atap_tango_TangoJNINative_Initialize__Landroid_content_Context_2)
Which I feel shows that they just took the Tango software stack and integrated it to a form that doesn't require the depth camera. I mean a lot of the Tango SDK revolved around it getting you point clouds, finding planes with those points, and creating area description files with it, etc. I feel "Tango" is only dead if OEM's just stop trying to add more hardware to phones and sticking with the RGB camera. Also I speculate the reason for no new Tango release is Apple dropping the ball on ARKit and Google needing to make move as well.
The answer is a clear no because ARcore really is Tango. As in, installing the ARCore preview apk gives you a 'Tango Core' service which you can see on your non-Tango phone (I use a Pixel XL).
Clay Bavor has even confirmed this in an interview: "“There’s a lot of things that need to happen to make it successful though,” Bavor admits. “We’ve always known that it’s got to work at scale, so we’ve been investing in software-only solutions like ARCore, building on all of the Tango technology, just without the additional sensors. ..."
However, if you're asking whether the (previously required) hardware stack for Tango (fisheye cam & IR depth sensor) is 'dead', we're in the realm of speculation. My guess is that ARcore might actually save the hardware stack. With ARcore, >100 million devices will soon run Tango, which means that there will finally be a strong incentive for developers to release high quality apps and games. Then there's a really good reason for device manufacturers to offer specialized Tango hardware, because such hardware will result in a better AR experience (better tracking, additional features etc). But this hardware will probably be more varied than the previous Tango hardware stack.