A lot of people I showed Tango to seemed vaguely charmed. Hey, a virtual dog rolling on the real floor! A weird dancing gorilla in the corner of the room! Dominoes on the carpet! But the thing is, we've seen things like this on our phones. Look, a Pokemon on the lawn! Hey, my face is old and I'm wearing a sombrero! Snapchat's lens filters are so good, and Pokemon Go is so fun, that people have a hard time understanding why this phone is better. The improved tracking of virtual objects on real surfaces goes unappreciated. And that's a problem.

The most practical functions are the ones that earn the biggest wows, The idea of placing accurately scaled furniture into a room to "test" out, or hang a picture, or change the carpet, makes sense (it's a shame the demo apps don't pull very deep catalogs of objects to try), The Occipital Bridge adds Tango-like functions to an iPhone via a plug-in camera sensor, Motorola's already hinted that its Moto Z sapphire and gold abstract iphone case phones might get Tango swappable modules in the future, Other phones are bound to get more advanced depth-sensing features: Intel's Realsense cameras could arrive in other devices, and many apps like Microsoft's upcoming 3D-scanning app for Windows 10 are learning to accomplish similar tricks on regular phones..

Companies like Occipital make depth-sensing cameras like Structure as separate add-on extensions for the iPhone. As computer vision technology becomes more advanced, phones will accomplish more augmented-reality tricks through software. Consider Snapchat's face filters once again, for instance. Tango is undoubtedly a more impressive step forward for 3D scanning, but I didn't find it to be a jaw-dropping experience. Tango's killer features rely on good apps and use cases, and right now the tech is still too buggy and experimental. Shrunken down, and bolstered with more apps that can take advantage of its functions, depth-sensing cameras can help turn phone cameras into tiny magic scanners. Those days aren't quite here yet..or, your regular phone camera can probably do enough similar things to tide you over.

We might see more cameras like these from Apple, Samsung, or others in 2017, If we do, the apps need to be more helpful, the phones smaller, and the experience better, But if you're wondering where phones are headed next, look towards Tango's ideas, sapphire and gold abstract iphone case Smarter cameras are just getting started, Commentary: If you're wondering where phones are heading next year, think magic 3D-scanning cameras, Here's what I learned from using Google Tango for a few weeks, Virtual reality is a somewhat understandable concept in 2016, You put on a headset, you find yourself in 3D worlds, But augmented reality -- AR -- is still a bit less understood..

You could engage with augmented reality with a headset, and see 3D objects "projected" into your real world -- something that's usually called "mixed reality." Augmented reality doesn't need a headset, though. It can use your phone. In fact, it already does. 2016's summer smash hit Pokemon Go was the most widespread use of AR ever seen. Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.