The Intel RealSense Smartphone Development Kit, what happened with it?

[DPrin1]

The Intel RealSense Smartphone Development Kit, what happened with it?

I was just to late with ordering it and it seem to have vanished in thin air...

Does anyone know what happened with it?

[MartyG · Accepted solution]

It looks as though the Smartphone Development Kit was cancelled last summer.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3101783/intel-has-quietly-snuffed-out-its-project-tango-smartphone-as-it-rethinks-augmented-reality.html Intel has quietly snuffed out its Project Tango smartphone as it rethinks augmented reality | PCWorld

The article's assertion that Intel has given up on RealSense in smartphones, if true, also explains why support for the R200 mobile camera has been dropped from the latest R3 version of the RealSense SDK, with R200 kit owners having to use version R2 to develop with it. Going forward, RealSense's immediate future seems to be in 'desktop cam' applications with the SR-300, and robotics control.

Beyond the camera kits, there are also products that have RealSense cameras in them but are not defined as RealSense developer kits, not supported by the SDK. These include the Aero drone kit and the Project Alloy mixed-reality headset.

[DPrin1]

I found that aswell, though I figured people must have bought the kit...

I am mostly in it for the combination phone and intel atom, I have been modding the zenfone 2 aswell but the zenfone does not like tinkering with the bootloader.

I am hoping someone who bought the kit can state a reply they had from intel that either they returned the money and canceled fabrication or that it is still on its way.

Here and there on shady sites the phone is comming up for sale though only with old pictures and weird discriptions. Since I was to late ordering myself I was hoping for better news...

[MartyG]

Yes, getting RealSense kits from non-Intel sources such as eBay can be risky. I have seen eBay ads asking for hundreds for a kit because it is "ultra rare", playing on the difficulty in obtaining kits from the official store due to frequent out-of-stocks. The smartphone kit was listed on the Intel store for a time, though I'm not sure if it ever changed from pre-order to being actually available to buy.

Intel's common strategy with RealSense is to create "reference designs" for products - blueprints that manufacturers can use as a basis to create their own version of that product. Whilst this strategy reduces Intel's risk and reduces costs greatly (no need to manufacture their own hardware and risk it sitting unsold on shelves), it means that if a product is not popularly adopted by manufacturers then support for it from Intel is at risk of being dropped.

Fortunately, if that happens, there are alternate options for obtaining up to date development software, such as the open-source Librealsense (approved by Intel but not provided official technical support by them).