Washington, Feb 24 (IANS): Can your smart phone create a 3D-map of a room? Wait a while and that is going to be a reality.

Google is venturing into this exciting technology. The prototype phone, a 5-inch device codenamed 'Project Tango', was revealed recently.

Its sensors can read a room by tracking the motion of the device itself and simultaneously mapping the environment around it with “a quarter million 3D measurements every second”, reported Washington Post.

Google is partnering with 16 firms and organisations to work on the technology and is asking for more institutions to sign up to work on prototype applications.

The technology is going to help you with shopping where an indoor map of the store in your hand could make shopping trips more efficient by leading you directly to the shelf you want.

It can also help you when you need directions inside a building that current mapping solutions do not provide.

The visually-impaired could use the phone to map out the room and use some kind of software to get alerts about obstacles on the way.

The tool has a potential to provide valuable information to emergency workers like fire fighters in situations where knowing the exact layout of a room can be a matter of life or death.