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Project Tango

google.com

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Re: Project Tango

#191

Post by cbr »

sneak wrote: post #96
hrayr wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the solution? Stop innovating because there's a slight chance of said innovation being used for evil? I'm all for being wary of what's going on, so that you don't get caught with your pants down, but what's the absolute worse that can happen? Every single tech that you can think of that has changed the world in some form, had it's own set of doomsayers, but as a whole I think we've progressed in the right dire…

The solution is to stop centralized data collection. The reason it doesn't happen is because corporations don't like giving up control of data that they can keep to themselves and store forever. Many of these apps could run clientside and access the cloud solely for information, but that doesn't fit in with the Google vision of organizing the world's information and making it useful for selling products and services…

    The solution is to stop centralized data collection.
Centralized data collection gives me good auto-complete in search. It means when I start sending an email to John Smith and Jane Doe it can ask me if I might have meant Jane Roe instead. It means when I lose my phone I don't lose any of my data.

Re: Project Tango

#193

Post by gilgoomesh »

evanlivingston wrote: post #115
groby_b wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Mapping the physical world Ever wanted a floor plan for your home? Just wave your phone around. * Visual annotation Add direction overlays, see the plan for a play your team is executing on the helmet HUD, highlight "dangerous"(weaving, too fast, whatnot) drivers on the car HUD. * Integrate sensor data to extend human perception Add an IR overlay. Sample sound across the room, do a volumetric display of noise level…

I think I'm a neo-luddite.

I don't think you're a luddite. With any technology like this, it's important to ask: what applications does this really enable and will those applications simply be a waste of time.

This is an unveiling of a technology but the "applications" they show in this video are probably a waste of time to most users. Google have not shown a killer app that uses this tech. Maybe they're working on something (they hint that they may be planning to integrate indoor mapping into Google Maps which might be interesting) but they're not showing it in this video.

That doesn't mean the tech is bad. But we haven't seen enough to judge it as useful to end users.

Re: Project Tango

#194

Post by neumann »

evanlivingston wrote: post #115
groby_b wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Mapping the physical world Ever wanted a floor plan for your home? Just wave your phone around. * Visual annotation Add direction overlays, see the plan for a play your team is executing on the helmet HUD, highlight "dangerous"(weaving, too fast, whatnot) drivers on the car HUD. * Integrate sensor data to extend human perception Add an IR overlay. Sample sound across the room, do a volumetric display of noise level…

I think I'm a neo-luddite.

hah! That's the word I was looking for.

Re: Project Tango

#195

Post by SiVal »

blhack wrote: post #165
SiVal wrote: post #53

"Imagine measuring your room by just walking around in it." Yes, and imagine transmitting each of those footsteps in real time back to Google, so they can have a map of your room, too, in case they, or other parties, ever need it. I was just having a discussion yesterday with a friend who works at Google about what data they store when you query their search engine. Every single keystroke, including backspaces, is st…

Good god I am so sick of reading comments like this. This view of the world is just lazy . Almost as lazy as "remember, if you're using a service for free, you're not the customer, YOU'RE THE PRODUCT!", which seems to get parroted every single time there is any discussion related to google, facebook, microsoft, instagram, twitter, or any other web company that uses ads as a revenue model. Yes, google can know what yo…

My carrier pigeon just arrived with some TCP/IP/pigeon protocol packets, and I see I've caused someone's head to explode on the Internet.

I'll put down my vegetable hoe and ask you this. Given that these are my friends, neighbors, and former coworkers I'm talking about at Google, is there any information about you that you would be uncomfortable having your friends collect and store in a database for unknown parties to eventually analyze? If there's some limit beyond which you might say, "Well, that's going a bit too far," and that caused someone else to fulminate over your backwardness, what would you say to them?

Oh, well, gotta send this pigeon off and get back to my bunker before the drones catch me out in the open....

Re: Project Tango

#196

Post by cbr »

morganherlocker wrote: post #185
kh_hk wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me give you another example that goes on the line of your comment. Days ago a friend showed me how after calling a restaurant (just a number) for doing a reservation and later the contact list displayed the name of the restaurant and an image of it. Cool, right? Joe and Foo love this feature, but do not know the implications of it: a query is sent to Google asking for the info on a number (one must presume, tied…

It would be interesting to create some sort of crowdsourced database for these types of anecdotes that could then be sifted through and corroborated. Something like that might bring a bit more transparency to the "deal" we all make with these types of services. I get the whole argument of "well you wanted to use the free service, so now they get to monetize your data", but what services collect and how the data is us…

The most dystopic uses of data are the ones where you'll never really know it was sold on. Get turned down for a job in five years because the owner paid to run a search in a private database that has something about your illicit past? How will you know?

(Note: I'm not actually that worried about this -- I think society will adjust -- but I think collecting anecdotes only shames the people using your data in ways that are trying to be helpful to you.)

Re: Project Tango

#197

Post by bri3d »

psbp wrote: post #171
rl3 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the good news is that 3D point cloud data in context of a public setting wouldn't be much more invasive than the already-pervasive video surveillance we have today. The bad news is as you say: having mapping data of your private residence siphoned off by third parties, be it government or private industry. I would say I'm as excited as I am worried about the potential for this technology. That said, I think…

Did HN react to the Kinect or Kinect 2 this way? It seems like there's a lot of burden put on Google to not do stuff that could be creepy even though that's all they do.

I can't comment on "HN's reaction" because I don't tend to put much stock in trying to draw a consensus from HN.

However, my recollection is that there was a reasonably vocal reaction to the privacy implications of Xbox One / Kinect 2 in gaming and tech media, although they mostly related to the timing of the first Snowden leaks. This article is a pretty good example of the media hype around it: http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/16/4526770/will-the-nsa-use-t... .

I think the "always-on" nature was more criticized than the point-cloud/time-of-flight abilities of the camera, but pushback against more and more ways to collect data attached to equipment made by big tech corporations isn't exclusive to Google.

Re: Project Tango

#198

Post by tiziano88 »

SiVal wrote: post #195
blhack wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good god I am so sick of reading comments like this. This view of the world is just lazy . Almost as lazy as "remember, if you're using a service for free, you're not the customer, YOU'RE THE PRODUCT!", which seems to get parroted every single time there is any discussion related to google, facebook, microsoft, instagram, twitter, or any other web company that uses ads as a revenue model. Yes, google can know what yo…

My carrier pigeon just arrived with some TCP/IP/pigeon protocol packets, and I see I've caused someone's head to explode on the Internet. I'll put down my vegetable hoe and ask you this. Given that these are my friends, neighbors, and former coworkers I'm talking about at Google, is there any information about you that you would be uncomfortable having your friends collect and store in a database for unknown parties…

that's silly, people at Google don't have access to your data, and even if they did, they would not have your name attached on

Re: Project Tango

#199

Post by Gigablah »

evanlivingston wrote: post #115
groby_b wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Mapping the physical world Ever wanted a floor plan for your home? Just wave your phone around. * Visual annotation Add direction overlays, see the plan for a play your team is executing on the helmet HUD, highlight "dangerous"(weaving, too fast, whatnot) drivers on the car HUD. * Integrate sensor data to extend human perception Add an IR overlay. Sample sound across the room, do a volumetric display of noise level…

I think I'm a neo-luddite.

This has applications even for, uh, "normal" people. For example, online real estate portals. People who are house-hunting would probably appreciate floorplans or a 3D tour. Agents, landlords or property developers would be able to easily create those with their mobile device.
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