Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) fabled smartphone, which the retailing giant will likely introduce at an event on June 18, will use Omron's Okao Vision face sensing technology for its 3D user interface, according to a TechCrunch report.
The report, citing an unnamed source, said that the device will sport four front-mounted infrared cameras to scan users' faces and movements. According to the report, the Japanese firm's technology was modified by Amazon so that the gadget could produce its unique stereoscopic effects from a standard LCD screen.
The report, corroborating others, including from BGR, said that a user will be able to tilt the smartphone or their head left or right to browse and access hidden side panels on the screen. Those details seem consistent with actors' reactions in a video Amazon released to preview the device, which showed people moving their heads around to view something off-screen. (Business Insider noted that a very brief shot of the phone can be seen in one of the frames of the video, showing a black smartphone with what appears to be a headphone jack on top.)
Further, TechCrunch notes that the Okao software figures out the X, Y, and Z coordinates of a person's face or motion using the cameras, and the phone's gyroscopic sensor and accelerometer let it provide a faster reaction and greater accuracy to produce the parallax 3D effect, which does not require users to wear glasses.
Interestingly, the report notes that Amazon hopes third-party developers will use its forked version of Android to create apps that use the technology since there will only be a few limited apps and features that use the 3D technology out of the box.
For more:
- see this TechCrunch article
- see this Business Insider article
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