Google 3D-scanning camera helps shoppers search and navigate aisles

Google's 3D-scanning camera, Project Tango, has graduated from the internet search company's experimental lab and will now make it to the real world, The Independent reported.

The scanner started off as a concept for a smartphone which would scan the world around it in 3D.  The scanner could then make that into a model that could be used for augmented reality or direct people to important things.

The technology could be used for mapping out the dimensions of a home before buying furniture, or giving easy directions around a new building, according to Google. The technology could also help visually impaired people by providing assistance for walking around.

It could find application in games too, allowing kids to play hide and seek with animated characters or changing familiar locations into the sites of other animations.

The tech had moved out of Google's experimental Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) division, and into a  ''new home within Google''.

In a Google+ post announcing the move, ATAP said, ''We're excited about the continued commitment to developing the technology for our users  - we wish our fellow pirates fair winds and following seas.''

The move would indicate whether the technology could be used in consumer devices. Google was also reportedly working with LG to make a version of the technology that people could buy ready for release some time this year  reported.

According to Gizmodo, the technology turned shopping into a video game. The mapping app is capable of scanning over a quarter million 3D measurements every second.

A YouTube demonstration of the technology shows a woman walking into a Walgreens store and affixing her Project Tango equipped tablet onto her shopping cart, which leads to digital-reality merger.

Walking through the aisles, she follows 3D augmentation to locate the products on her list and also earns reward points on the way. A Walgreens executive says in the video, "The store comes alive."