Google I/O is only a month away. Today, Google posted a big chunk of the schedule for the event, which contains a few hints about what to expect. The main takeaway: lots and lots of virtual reality talks.
"VR" is an entire content track at Google I/O this year, with seven sessions dedicated to virtual or augmented reality. The most ominous session is titled "Google's Vision for VR." The session description is a single sentence, promising to cover "what we have built, what we have learned, and where we are headed." Google I/O session descriptions are usually a full paragraph, so the ones with really vague, short session descriptions suggest that Google is trying to avoid spoilers. Clay Bavor, the head of Google's new "Virtual Reality" division, will lead the talk.
Google is slowly building up a large presence in VR. The company already makes a VR painting app called "Tilt Brush," which our own Sam Machkovech called a "killer app" for the HTC Vive. It supports "VR Videos" on YouTube with 3D, 360-degree video formats. Google Cardboard is the company dipping its toes into the VR space with the cheapest possible platform—a smartphone in a cardboard box. It acquired Thrive Audio, a positional 3D audio company, and has integrated some VR features into the latest version of Android N. Inside the company, some of the most important employees have moved to the VR team, like the former lead designer of Google Search, Jon Wiley, and Alex Faaborg, the former lead designer for Firefox, Google Now, and Android Wear. And supposedly this is just the tip of the iceberg. Google is rumored to be building a VR interface for Android, a standalone VR headset, a Gear VR competitor, and custom SoCs aimed at VR and AR.Besides the "Vision for VR" talk, there's also talks on "VR & Cinema" featuring "Google’s Principal Filmmaker for VR," Jessica Brillhart. Google already has a few 360-degree videos under its belt with Google Spotlight Stories. There's also a talk with a gaming-focus called "Live coding: Make a virtual reality game."
Several other sessions are dedicated to Project Tango, Google's 3D-sensing augmented-reality capable smartphone. The company already announced the Lenovo would be building the first consumer Project Tango device, with a release in "Summer 2016." Judging by the I/O schedule, we'll take a guess and say that Lenovo's Project Tango phone will be the I/O freebie device that all the developers get to take home.
At I/O, there's a "What's New with Project Tango" session that promises to "explore the vision of Project Tango and how it will come to life with the launch of our first consumer phone." That sounds like we'll at least get a live demo of what the Lenovo hardware looks like and what it can do. The "Introducing Project Tango Area Learning" talk says the device can "remember the space around you." Tango's sensors can scan a room and create a 3D model. By saving this information, developers will be able to "attach virtual objects to the world," and "design multiplayer experiences and know the exact location of each player."There's a whole Tango session dedicated to gaming called "6 Degree of Freedom Gaming in Android with Project Tango," and there will be a "Project Tango Developer Panel" where people can fire questions at experienced Tango developers.
As for Android, there will still be the usual crowd pleasers "What's new in Android" and "What's new in Android development tools," but with the launch of the Android N Developer Preview in March, we aren't expecting many surprises.
Of course, the biggest talk is the Keynote, led by Google CEO Sundar Pichai on May 18 at 10am Pacific Time. The keynote talk is usually where most of the big announcements are unveiled. There are only about 100 sessions listed on the schedule. Google says the current schedule only shows "the first wave" of talks, and it expects the number to double. Are the missing talks also the most interesting? Would just naming them be a huge spoiler? We'll have to wait until the event to find out.
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