This technology is quietly changing everything from smartphones to cars to virtual reality

The coolest announcement of CES 2016, to me, was the news that Lenovo and Google are working together to put the search giant's nifty Project Tango sensors into a forthcoming consumer smartphone. 

Project Tango, like similar efforts from Microsoft, Apple, and Intel, is trying to give smartphones and other devices the ability to perceive depth and space the way humans do. 

That sounds nerdy, but the potential effects of the shift towards depth perception are profound: Get ready for apps that help you measure furniture or guide you straight to your friends in a crowded club.

It's the future of tech, as our devices learn to make more sense of the world around us. And it's just starting to sneak into all the tech we use. 

SoftKinetic, a startup that Sony bought in late 2015, has been doing this for a while now. In fact, it's the technology platform behind the new BMW 7 Series' very high-tech dashboard gesture controls, where a wave or a swipe answers the phone or turns up the music. 

Check it out in action:

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