The Internet giant Alphabet (né Google) is about to hold its annual developer's conference, I/O 2016, in the company's headquarters at Mountain View, California, starting Wednesday. As the kickoff quickly approaches, rumors are blowing up about the company's next big expansion of the next big thing: virtual reality.

Google VR (or Android VR)

Google may be planning to show off an entire ecosystem for virtual reality at the I/O 2016 developer's conference this year, which goes from May 18 to May 20.

Reports from Bloomberg and TheVerge have Google joining the VR fray in a big way, much bigger than its first low cost do-it-yourself "Cardboard VR" initiative, which was basically a kit to hoist a VR-capable smartphone in front of users' eyes.

The key to the company's latest step forward, alternately known as "Android VR" or simply "Google VR," is another technology that's been in the works for a few years: Project Tango.

Project Tango

Project Tango is a computer vision software platform that combines 3D motion tracking, image processing, positional sensors, area mapping, along with two-camera hardware to create a sense of depth perception while turning the real world into a digital space.

The ultimate goal is to make it simple to launch an application, shoot the real-world environment, and turn that into a data-rich, navigable virtual space.

If you think that sounds perfect for the content creation side of VR, you're not alone.

Rumors have had Google baking elements of VR into the core of the next Android N operating system, and Google's hosting four separate sessions for developers based on Tango this year have fanned those flames.

"With I/O it feels like they're really doubling down on" Tango VR, said Andrew Nakas, a Tango application developer for the past two years, to Bloomberg. "I can do things now I had no expectation I could do back then in 2014."

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