Four months after Google unveiled Project Tango—a prototype Android smartphone with cameras and sensors that capture the phone's environment in 3-D—developers are using the device to make cheap drones for surveying zones, more immersive video games, and even a body-part scanning system that could lead to a better-fitting suit.

As well as a normal front-facing camera and sensors that measure orientation and motion, the device has a fish-eye camera on its rear that sees 180 degrees and a depth-sensing camera that uses infrared to capture a 3-D representation of the surrounding world. So far, 200 of the phones have been handed out to researchers and companies, who are doing things like strapping them to drones and using them to scan and model body parts.