Project Tango can be difficult to explain, but in essence, it’s a relatively new technology platform from Google that lets you use a mobile device to detect where you are without using GPS. It uses 3D motion tracking and depth sensing to let your device know exactly where it is and how it moves in relation to the world around it. It’s sort of like hyper-local GPS with some augmented reality thrown in for good measure. So what was it doing at the museum? 

Google, along with Lenovo, GuidiGo, and Glympse, were showing off the potential of Tango by demonstrating how it can be used to give a guided tour through one of Barcelona’s most famous museums. GuidiGo was used to map the museum, and Glympse helps you locate your friends inside. 

So how did it work, exactly? We were broken into small groups, since right now Tango has a tendency to get confused when too many people are in the room. The GuidiGo app was loaded on Lenovo’s Tango development kit tablet, and our tour guide pointed its camera around the room for a few seconds to get things properly mapped out. Once that was done, it generated the floor plan you see above. 

What’s cool about this is that, once the map is generated, you can easily find your way anywhere in the museum simply by choosing it on your screen. Want to see a specific piece of art? Select it from the app, and you’ll be given a view of the room you’re in through your phone’s screen. Point the camera toward the floor, and blue dots appear in real-time over the picture to show you exactly the path you need to take. It’s like indoor GPS for Picasso.  

We used the app to follow the trail to our first painting, and the app displayed a marker on screen when we arrived. But it doesn’t stop there. Holding the screen up to the painting will suddenly reveal a number of circles hovering over it in different areas. Tap one to see information information about the artwork itself, like you can see below. 

And if you get separated from your friends, you can use Glympse to look around the museum through the screen of your device and locate any companions who are also running the app. They appear with a big cartoonish icon, and you can simply point your device in their direction and start walking until you find them. 

The technology certainly isn’t perfect. Like I said before, too many people in the room can make it difficult for the camera to lock on, and the blue direction trail dropped out a couple of times over a 10-minute test period. Still, what I find impressive is that Google didn’t have to map out the museum for this to work. Instead, GuidiGo used Tango to make it, thanks to the 180-degree camera on the development tablet. And a spokesperson from Google said that once this technology is available on a wider level, mapping information can be crowdsourced to create far more detailed maps. 

While I went into this demo wondering what Tango had to do with such a beautiful museum, it all made sense by the time is was over. When Project Tango is available to the masses—something Lenovo plans to make happen this summer with consumer-ready devices—this is exactly what people will want to use it for. Instead of having to deal with those chintzy, dingy audio guides, how cool would it be to simply bring your phone to a museum and automatically tailor a tour to your liking? 

Of course, it’s easy to see possibilities outside of the fine art realm as well. Want to find a certain pair of shoes in the mall? I’m sure Adidas will be happy to direct you straight to its sold out display of Yeezy Boosts. Of course, the spread of Tango will likely depend on consumer adoption, so it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out. 

But for a brief demo in a beautiful museum, Project Tango certainly managed to impress. Or maybe it was all the wonderful art. Then again, I was mostly looking through a screen at the ground.