Lenovo and Google unveil a smartphone that knows its way around a room

A Lenovo smartphone will be clever enough to grasp your physical surroundings — such as the room's size and the presence of other people — and potentially transform how we interact with e-commerce, education and gaming. Today's smartphones track location through GPS and cell towers, but that does little more than tell apps where you are. Tapping Google's 3-year-old Project Tango, the new phone will use software and sensors to track motions and map building interiors, including the location of doors and windows. That's a crucial step in the promising new frontier in "augmented reality," or the digital projection of lifelike images and data into a real-life environment. Lenovo says the new Phab2 Pro phone will sell for $500 when it begins shipping in the US in August.

The device is expected to be on store shelves by mid-September, in advance of Apple's anticipated release of the iPhone 7. If Tango fulfills its promise, furniture shoppers will be able to download digital models of couches, chairs and coffee tables to see how they would look in their actual living rooms. Kids studying the Mesozoic Era would be able to place a virtual Tyrannosaurus or Velociraptor in their home or classroom — and even take selfies with one. The technology would even know when to display information about an artist or a scene depicted in a painting as you stroll through a museum.