Items tagged with ATAP
Using passwords as a form of security may not be long for this world, not if Google gets its way. The Mountain View outfit's ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) division is hard at work on Project Abacus, a scheme that relies on biometric data to determine a person's identity rather than relying on traditional password input. Core to Project Abacus is a "Trust Score" that takes into account a variety of factors. One of the biggest ones is your physical location, though it's far from the only way Project Abacus calculates the likelihood that you are who you claim to be. It also analyzes things like how you type and speak, facial recognition, and so forth. "Last year we talked about Project...
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Rick Osterloh is returning home, so to speak, to Google to head the company’s newly hatched hardware division. Osterloh originally arrived at Google by way of the search giant’s purchase of Motorola in 2011. While under the Google umbrella, Osterloh was promoted to CEO of Motorola, but was unceremoniously booted from Mountain View when Motorola was sold to Lenovo in 2014. Osterloh left Motorola last month and is now back into the newly open arms of Google, which wants to get its house in order when it comes to hardware. Google is especially eager to get the ball rolling after losing Regina Duncan, who led Google’s Advanced Technologies and Project (ATAP) group, to Facebook. Google is consolidating...
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If the term “skin tag” grosses you out, you’re not alone, but the intestinally robust can now unlock their Moto X smartphone with a special sticker--an NFC-equipped skin tag--instead of a PIN or other tedious method. A product of collaboration between VivaLnk Inc (with its eSkinTM technology) and Google’s ATAP division, you can now slap a sticker on your skin that will let you unlock your phone by touching it to the sticker. Call it a digital temporary tattoo. “The nickel-sized tattoo is adhesive, lasts for five days, and is made to stay on through showering, swimming, and vigorous activities like jogging. And it’s beautiful—with a shimmering, intricate...
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Perhaps it was inevitable, but Google’s Project Tango team has expanded its device experimentation beyond smartphones into tablets. The tablet will, like the Project Tango smartphone, provide real-time 3D mapping overlays of real environments using cameras and sensors. According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, Google is planning to pump out some 4,000 tablets from its ATAP division to seed to developers. As we said when covering the Project Tango smartphone, the key to this technology is very much whatever devs can dream up. Project Tango smartphone The WSJ stated that the Project Tango tablet will be a 7-inch device with two rear cameras and infrared depth sensors that will...
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The first Project Ara Developers Conference is underway, and the big news up front is that Google’s ATAP team will get the first model to market in January 2015, and it will cost a mere fifty bucks--at least for developers to make. It’s not yet known how much the devices will cost at retail, but presumably that will vary, as the early device will probably be a barebones affair. Initially, the Project Ara will be a “gray phone”--literally, a drab gray in color--with the idea that buyers will customize it to their own tastes. At first, it appears that customizable options will be in the realm of apps and software, although there will be a configurator to let users opt for...
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When Google unexpectedly sold off Motorola to Lenovo after investing heavily in the Moto X and Moto G smartphones and owning the Motorola brand for less than two years, the fate of the Project Ara modular smartphone seemed doomed, but it appears that the project is very much alive and well. According to Time’s TechLand, Google did not sell off a key department: the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, which is responsible for Project Ara. So just how “alive” is Project Ara? The group announced that it’s holding a developers' conference on April 15-16 with a focus on the Ara Module Developers’ Kit (MDK). Further, the prototype will be ready within weeks,...
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The latest off-the-wall endeavor from Google is called “Project Tango”, and it’s a smartphone equipped with technology that can 3D map any environment you find yourself in--in real time. A product of Google’s ATAP (Advanced Technology And Projects) group, Project Tango takes a quarter million measurements every second to create a living, breathing 3D model of wherever you are. If you’re not immediately visualizing killer uses for this technology, you’re not alone--but that’s because the technology itself will require the creativity of software developers to come up with compelling uses for it. The ATAP team offers a few ideas, such as gaming overlays...
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Choosing a recordable DVD drive has always been somewhat of a difficult task. There was a bit of initial uncertainty as some wondered which format would win out, DVD+R or DVD–R. After all, each format has its advantages. In the end, however, unlike the Beta vs VHS battles of the early 80s, this war was quelled as OEMs moved quickly to offer both capabilities with Dual Format drives. Today, we have another addition to the mix with the long awaited arrival of Dual Layer recordable DVDs. This iteration of writable media supports a full 8.5GB of storage capacity. And unlike previous market evolutions, Dual Layer DVD drives have entered the market at very...
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For years Plextor has set the standard for optical drives in both quality and features, being the first to bring major innovations to market on a number of occasions. These days, the competition fierce, with cheaper offerings available that can compete on the same performance level as slightly more expensive Plextor products. However, what these cheaper models usually lack are unique features that bring new functionality to the forefront, something Plextor has been doing for quite some time. Today on HotHardware, we're going to take a look at the latest Plextor drive to land our test bench, the Plextor PX-712A. This model boasts 12X DVD recording on DVD+R media and 8X recording with DVD-R...
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