The pair want to create an augmented reality phone which has in-built 3D sensors that take in the world around you and allow you to see an altered version of your surroundings. This is a copy of Apple, but the fruity cargo cult's reality distortion field is powered by marketing rather than technology.

But AR is not something you would normally thing about shoving on an smartphone.  So far it's been put on tablets and headsets,

Lenovo's vice president Jeff Meredith said the project's aim is to create an affordable device that ordinary people can play with. This might have been a jab at Oculus Rift's price was revealed to be a whopping $599.

Johnny Lee, Project Tango lead at Google, said: "With Project Tango, the smartphone becomes a magic window into the physical world by enabling it to perceive space and motion that goes beyond the boundaries of a touch screen. By working with Lenovo, we'll be able to make Project Tango more accessible to users and developers all over the world to both enjoy and create new experiences that blends the virtual and real world."

Google and Lenovo have unveiled a rather nice prototype of the smartphone but provided little in the way of concrete details. .