Left is Johnny Lee, right is the author
Johnny Lee came to Shenzhen. After hearing the news in the early hours of last Thursday, I booked the ticket for the evening and arrived at the hotel in Shenzhen at 3 am on Friday. Later, he and Johnny mentioned that he repeatedly expressed that I am sorry to be surprised at the fact that some people came to fly from Beijing at night to see him.
Johnny's full name Johnny Chung Lee in his 30s is an American-born Taiwan-American. As a big man in the field of human-computer interaction, he has numerous fans in the domestic and foreign technology circles and is currently working on Google’s Project Tango project.
At 11 am on Friday morning, after seeing Ximmerse's group of people, he was handed over to me and he opened a long journey for the rest of the day. We included a total of five companies including Lei Feng. There are Lei Feng network founder Lin school. Along the way, we talked a lot about Tango, AR/VR, and China’s hardware entrepreneurship. Finally there was a separate interview.
Sharpen Pokemon Go's AR Experience with TangoJohnny is very large and his photo with me was commented as "2 to 1" by a circle of friends. The feeling that he personally gives to people is actually very "awkward," it is kind of polite, asks questions, and will endure people (not me) who smoke around themselves. When I first met, he told me that there was no arrangement today. "Then I will follow you." The result was indeed the same. At that time, he actually did not know what Lei Feng Network is.
At the Lei Feng Net Shenzhen office, in order to open the topic of AR, I asked him if he had played Pokemon Go. He smiled and said "No." It was no wonder then that he was born in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and childhood was obviously not a Pokemon. He said that the popularity of Pokemon Go led to everyone's understanding of AR, but in fact the AR of this game is very simple. "Like a sticker," he described the combination of Pokemon and the real environment.
"What if you combine Tango with Pokemon Go?" I continued.
He said that if you join Tango support, you can let Pokemon really stand on the floor, on the table or float in a specific location in the space, because Tango can identify the surrounding environment, let the phone know its location in the space . With Tango, you can see Pokemon running on the ground; you can leave this place and come back and find Pokemon still in place; you can also find the same Pokemon with others. This is a truly excellent AR experience.
Tango Mobile Lenovo Phab2 Pro
Tango's ability to make Pokemon's implementation of these features explains to a large extent what Google's "black technology" really is. According to Johnny, it actually uses a depth camera and a fisheye camera. The former is used to detect positions, the latter is used to track movements, combined with the IMU, and spatially localized by algorithms. Prior to this, Lei Feng network (search "Lei Feng network" public number concerned) also has articles for detailed analysis.
Tango lets the phone know where it is in the space so that when you place a virtual object in the real world, the object can stay there and be discovered by everyone.
This kind of positioning from the inside out is similar to Microsoft's HoloLens, except that Tango is currently only used on mobile phones (the first Tango phone is Lenovo's Phab2 Pro), and the device used by HoloLens is a helmet.
However, Tango also has its own limitations. Johnny told Lei Fengwang that due to the use of a camera, Tango's positioning will be affected by the light conditions, such as being unable to locate in the dark, and the farther it is from the object, the more difficult it will be to locate it. It may be affected by outdoor use. Tango does not currently have image recognition, so it does not know whether the object placed on the floor is a table or a chair.
If you insert a Tango phone into a VR phone boxJohnny has a lot of fans in the country. Many people admire him because he has watched a series of videos he posted on YouTube, especially the video of Wii Remote, including the reason I know him. His video on YouTube totaled more than 10 million.
And Johnny himself did not seem to realize that he was so famous. He even felt a bit cramped about the star treatment along the way. For example, when we had lunch together, the food had not yet come up. I found sitting next to him folding a toothpick. It was the paper bag that came with the cutlery. The reason why I was so impressed was because I also like to have a toothpick. When I was about to start folding, I found that he was also folding. This is something that will be done in some cramped occasions.
However, this does not prevent him from becoming a technological god in people's minds.
Godny Johnny worked at Microsoft before joining Google. His work for Kinect is also very well known. When talking about the different experiences of working in the two companies, he said that Microsoft is a very commercial company, and Google is even more eclectic. At the same time, he respected both companies.
What many people don't know is that in fact, the Tango team where Johnny is now belongs to the Daydream VR department, so it's very possible that Tango technology is used on VR. In this regard, Johnny's original remark was "We can look forward to," but he did not elaborate on the company's confidential information.
But it's also easy to guess. After discussing Pokemon Go+Tango, I half-jokingly asked him, "If you plug a Tango phone into a Cardboard?" He said he really had such an attempt.
It's easy to understand this way: Tango lets the phone know where it is in the space, and inserting Cardboard equals the VR helmet's spatial orientation. Similar to the Oculus god Kamach is developing inside-out positioning technology for Samsung Gear VR.
However, there are still many thresholds for the application of Tango's technology to VR, including performance, power consumption, latency, and so on. Prior to this, Lei Fengnet also had an article discussing why the mobile VR positioning technology is so difficult.
In terms of VR, Johnny appreciates the domestic hardware manufacturing capabilities, but also believes that there is still room for improvement in the software industry in China. In many cases, the hardware is already very good, but it is dragged down by the software and the experience still does not work. In this regard, Google may be able to play a role.
postscriptIt is a very pleasant experience to get along with Johnny. He always wants to respect your ideas. However, in fact there are occasional minor flaws. For example, at the hotel where he stayed last time, he sent me out after the interview. When he left, he bowed slightly. At the time, he forgot to go back and feel embarrassed. Fortunately, it was goodbye. . In fact, mainland China has very few such habits. It may be because he is a Taiwanese.
Finally, it's advertising time. If you want to work with one of the top 35 innovators in the world who have been rated as under 35, and they are working together with cute technology, welcome to apply for a position in the Singapore office of the Tango team. Please poke here.