This content might be used for VR headsets at some point

Sep 18, 2014 14:22 GMT  ·  By

You might be familiar with the Mantis Vision name because this is the company responsible for providing the 3D technology to the Google Project Tango tablet.

Well, they have decided to go into tablet business as a standalone entity and so rolled out an Android tablet called Aquila.

The tablet sports an 8-inch form factor and boats FHD resolution (meaning 1920 x 1200 pixels). It plays nice with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor that keeps things alive on the device and runs Google’s own Android operating system.

The hidden feat in Aquila comes now

Even if at this point the Aquila sounds like your average tablet, we can assure you it’s not. The tab has 13MP color camera and an IR camera for depth sensing that is enabled via the built-in IR flash.

Basically, the data picked up by these cameras can be used to create amazing and detailed 3D maps of your environment in real-time. So future users will be able to try the tablet out, flash it over a scene and immediately get a 3D picture to play with. On top of that, it can record 3D video and even real-time stream 3D data.

Google’s Project Tango uses NVIDIA’s powerful new Tegra K1 processor to achieve very specific goals, for example, capturing a detailed image of a building.

On the other hand, Aquila utilizes a more modest Snapdragon 801 processor, something you can find in most smartphones today. The other stuff that goes under the hood of the tablet, including the cameras is said to be hardware that can be purchased off shelves.

This way Mantis hopes to leave more options opened to developers and not only. Actually, the company offers low-level access to the tab’s mapping technology via the M4VD camera control SDK and its M4VD processing engine.

The 3D Content Created by Aquila could go into VR

Mantis actually views Aquila as the platform for developing technology 3D mapping and its openness is a good way to go about things.

Mantis’ ambitions might soon stretch beyond, as the company showed a rendering of a 3D world in a Google Cardboard-like VR headset using a Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone.

3D and virtual reality experiences are the next big thing. Amazon is doing it with its Fire Phone and even social media giant Facebook plunged in VR land when it purchased Oculus Rift. So Mantis is looking to make a plunge into the business, by providing the most important aspect – content.

For the time being, the tablet is available only to developers which are willing to register with $925 / €718 to get one. However, Mantis promises we’ll see consumer hardware available in middle-2015 that uses its 3D tech.

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