Lenovo, Google unveil phone that knows its way around a room

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Lenovo smartphone unveiled Thursday will be clever enough to grasp your physical surroundings — such as the room's size and the presence of other people — and potentially transform how we interact with e-commerce, education and gaming.

Tapping Google's 3-year-old Project Tango, the new phone will use software and sensors to track motions and map building interiors, including the location of doors and windows.

If Tango fulfills its promise, furniture shoppers will be able to download digital models of couches, chairs and coffee tables to see how they would look in their actual living rooms.

[...] Tango's room-mapping technology is probably still too abstract to gain mass appeal right away, says Ramon Llamas, an analyst at the IDC research group.

While AR tries to blend the artificial with your actual surroundings, virtual reality immerses its users in a setting that's entirely fabricated.

Google plans to bring Tango to other phones, but is focusing on the Lenovo partnership this year, according to Johnny Lee, a Google executive who oversaw the team that developed the technology drawn from previous research in robotics and the U.S. space program.