Google’s got a new consumer hardware initiative. It’s a mobile phone with machine vision eyes, ultra-fast inner-ears and spatially aware brains. And around that 5″ Android reference hardware, they’re trying to coordinate the biggest party in Spatial Computing this side of the Wiimote. Could this be all your AR Kickstarters come true?

Project Tango is the first public move by the “Advanced Technology and Projects Group” (ATAP), a lab Google pick-pocketed from Motorola in their recent revolving door dance with the company (Google bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn back in 2012, and then sold it on to Lenovo less than 2 years later for $3bn, but not before pulling out some the most promising patents from the company). ATAP look like a group of computer vision and robotics experts, who are likely sharing coffee right now with the Boston Dynamics guys (another Google spin-in, famous for their robotic beasts which can walk on ice and run like a cheetah).