LAURENCE MORONEY: A couple
of weeks ago on "Coffee
with a Googler," we
met with Justin Quimby,
and we spoke about Tango
and all the cool things
that are happening with Tango.
So now we're in Mountain View.
We're at the Tango
Summit, and Justin's here,
so we're going to go upstairs
and catch up with him.
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We're here now at the Tango
Summit in Mountain View,
and Justin's back to catch
up with us and tell us
what's new and exciting.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Well, what's new
and exciting is we launched.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Wow.
Woohoo.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: So yeah,
it's really exciting.
The Lenovo Phab 2
Pro went on sale
at the beginning of
November worldwide,
and we've already got dozens
of apps in the Play Store
that people are building.
And part of the reason we're
so thrilled about this event
this week is when
last we chatted,
I was talking about how
this is the beginning
of the ecosystem for smartphone
augmented reality applications.
And we're here to
help some folks spread
the word about Tango and how to
build great apps for the Phab 2
Pro and other
Tango-enabled smartphones.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Super cool.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yeah.
And one of the coolest
things is we're
starting to see apps
in the Play Store
that we didn't know about.
One of the really
exciting things
about this organic growth
in the app ecosystem
is it means that people are
getting excited about it
with us, without us simply
saying, hey, hey, hey,
built that.
Build an app.
Which means that
people are seeing
value in what Tango provides
to the smartphone ecosystem.
I mean, we've got
apps that-- I think
I saw you fail pretty
badly at Jenga earlier.
LAURENCE MORONEY: I
thought you were supposed
to knock the tower over.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yeah, of course.
For you, you're totally
supposed to knock it down.
Games are a natural place
to use augmented reality
in a smartphone form factor.
But it's not just about games.
Shopping is also
another fantastic area
where people are
starting to build
apps that take advantage
of the Tango stack
to really bring value and
utility to their users.
So iStaging and Wayfair
and Lowe's and Amazon,
and a bunch of
other folks, are all
building apps that use
the Tango technology.
It's not just about the app
ecosystem and developers
getting excited about what's
happening with the hardware
and software.
We're also starting to see
larger and larger organizations
get excited about
Tango technology.
Now, earlier this
year, we actually
had a hackathon in
Shenzhen, China.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Aha.
I've been to Shenzhen.
It's a nice place.
JUSTIN QUIMBY:
It's a crazy town.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Oh, yeah.
JUSTIN QUIMBY:
It's a crazy town.
The reason it was
particularly exciting
is there were over 200 teams
working on Tango applications.
And the prime minister of
China held a Phab 2 Pro--
LAURENCE MORONEY: Nice.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: And got
a demo of some of them.
So the thing that's
exciting about it is we
start to see not
just individuals
and small companies,
but bigger and bigger
companies, and
actually governments,
see value in this technology.
The snowball has just started
rolling down the hill.
And part of the thing
that I love about events
like this week is
you get to talk
to folks who are going to go out
and spread the word about Tango
and get the developer
community excited.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Nice.
JUSTIN QUIMBY:
And we can't wait.
We just cannot wait to see what
developers come up with with
this technology stack.
Because we've built
this set of tools,
and there are problems out there
that we don't even know about.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Sure.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: And we
can't wait for people
to use this technology in
new and interesting ways
to do things that we
haven't even thought of.
LAURENCE MORONEY: And
speaking of snowballs, I
heard there's one app that
models the entire solar system.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Oh, yeah.
So shopping, gaming, and then
there's a whole education one.
Now, we actually
had an incubator
to help some
developers build apps.
And one of the apps
that came out of it
is just a fantastic
demonstration
of how this kind of
technology can be
used for educational purposes.
Now, I don't know
about you, but when
I went through elementary
school and they
had the classes on
the solar system,
and you're sort
of sitting there,
and they start talking about
how many hundreds of thousands
of miles are between
Neptune and Pluto--
LAURENCE MORONEY:
A lot more that.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yeah.
And is Pluto still
a planet or not?
And you know?
This app lets you, then, place
a digital model of the sun all
the way to the outer
planets, and then you
see them, at scale, placed.
And it really drives
home how close
Mercury, Venus,
Mars, and Earth are
to the sun compared to Neptune
and Saturn and Jupiter.
And also, the vast
quantities of space
between Jupiter and Saturn.
Seeing that, sort
of kinestheticall
exploring that by
walking around,
has a whole different
impact as opposed
to just reading
numbers on a page
or maybe looking at a picture.
And so that's the
sort of application
where-- there's
this use case where
I want to see the path
of X, Y, or Z spacecraft.
Hey, maybe I want to be able
to plot my own spacecraft
and see-- what would it take
to actually get a spacecraft
to then orbit Jupiter?
And so suddenly, as opposed
to writing code on a computer,
or drawing out
things, suddenly I
can start navigating through
space with this device.
And this becomes a window
into a whole nother world.
And it unlocks all
of this potential.
And this is one app, right?
LAURENCE MORONEY: And
you've got dozens already.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yeah,
we've already got dozens,
and we expect to have
hundreds very soon.
And so for us, this
is where we can't
wait to see what the developer
community comes up with.
Because a diversity
of authorship,
when it comes to
apps, is so important.
We can't just have apps made
by folks here in San Francisco,
or here in Mountain View.
We need apps made worldwide.
And that, for me, is part of the
exciting thing about the Lenovo
device being sold worldwide.
Because we've got developers
in Shenzhen, Beijing, Seoul,
Berlin, Cairo-- all over
the planet-- developing
apps for it.
And I can't wait to
see what they built.
LAURENCE MORONEY: I'm going
to have to ask Santa for one.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yes.
That's a good idea.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So now, for
developers all over the world,
now that the device
is available,
what advice would you give them?
What's the best
way to get started?
How can they get up and running?
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Well, so
we've got a great site
at developers.google.com/tango,
which I hope will be
in the comments
below on this video.
LAURENCE MORONEY:
Right down there.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yeah,
right down there.
And we've got all sorts
of example applications.
So whether you're a Unity
developer, or Unreal,
or you actually are an
Android developer using Java,
or you just want to use
the Tango APIs and see,
we've got sample code
as well as documentation
for each of those paths.
And then we've also
got, on GitHub,
a whole bunch of example
apps that you can then
fork, tweak, play with.
Whenever I talk to developers,
the first thing I recommend
is-- all right.
Take one of those apps.
Just get it running on a device.
And then pick a model, pick any
model-- perhaps a Jenga piece,
or a model of Mars-- and then
place that digital object
in the real world.
Once you've got
that up and running,
you're off to the races.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Right.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: And
then you can explore
all of the advanced
capabilities that Tango provides
on top of the Android stack.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Cool.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: So-- and that's
the other thing to think about,
is that Tango is a
capability for this device.
It's not just about
motion-tracking and
area-learning and depth-sensing.
We're building on top of all the
other capabilities that Android
devices have today-- so
notifications, payment systems,
ads, like all this stuff--
LAURENCE MORONEY:
All these things
have become possible, yeah.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Those
are all layered.
You can layer into your app.
So really, it's start small.
Get something, start
playing with it,
and then start thinking about
the challenges that you face.
Think about the challenges
your users face.
And how could this
technology, knowing
where this device is at
any given point in time,
and how it moves
through space, how
could you use that to help
solve your user's problems?
And delight and
surprise your users?
One of our favorite apps
is the Dominoes app,
where you place digital
dominoes down on a board.
And part of the thing
that's fantastic about that
is suddenly it's not just about
these digital objects that
are dominoes, but you can
add additional behavior
on top of them.
And now imagine you're
playing a Jenga game,
but one of the pieces
is actually a bomb.
And when you try to
move it, it actually
blows up part of that stack.
LAURENCE MORONEY: That's
what happened to me.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yes,
that was completely
what happened to you
in that game of Jenga.
So suddenly, all
of the behaviors,
all of these
digital objects, can
have lives of their own, can
have behaviors of their own,
that make these
apps even better.
LAURENCE MORONEY: And the
neat thing about Dominoes
is that if you do it
in the real world,
you're constrained to the
physical number of dominoes
you have.
If you're doing it in this, you
can continually add dominoes.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Exactly.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Or
you can change gravity,
so that sometimes
they fall that way,
sometimes they fall upwards.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yeah.
And there's another great
game which is a Hot Wheels
track-builder game.
So you're placing digital track
and racing digital Hot Wheels
cars around it.
And I don't know about
you, but one of the--
LAURENCE MORONEY:
Never enough track.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: There's
never enough track.
And also, you've never
managed to pick up
all of your Hot Wheels cars.
And so at some
point later, you're
walking around your
house in your bare feet,
and you step on one.
And ooh, does that hurt.
So now, suddenly,
you're no longer
constrained by the
physical products you have.
Now you can start building
with these digital objects,
and building crazy digital
worlds that interact
with your real environment.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Super cool.
So before we wrap up,
there was one question
that we had from a viewer
of the previous show.
And that was that when you were
talking about all these things,
he was envisioning
the holographic chess
from "Star Wars."
Remember that?
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yes.
Yes.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So are you
working on anything like that?
Or what do you think about it?
JUSTIN QUIMBY: So
digital objects
like holographic chess--
it's a fantastic idea.
And we'd love to
see you build it.
We've actually had a
couple of folks come to us
and say, hey, we want to
build this kind of app.
And we're like, well,
here's the sample code.
And they're off to the races.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So, but just
don't play it against a Wookiee
because I hear they
pull your arms out
of the sockets when they lose.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yeah.
Yeah.
It's always wise to
let the Wookiee win.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
Sounds good.
Well, thanks, Justin.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Hey, it's
great to see you again.
LAURENCE MORONEY: It
was great catching up.
Looking forward to playing
with these devices.
Looking forward to seeing
how these apps work.
And I'm going to start
walking from the sun
to Pluto in augmented
reality, and I should
get there by next Tuesday.
JUSTIN QUIMBY: Yeah.
Perfect.
Thanks so much.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Thank you.
Be sure to check out the rest
of the "Coffee with a Googler"
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