Amazon’s Kindle 3D Phone-to-use Omron face-tracking technology – Ars Technica

Amazon’s teaser video for its upcoming 3D smartphone.

Amazon will reportedly use Omron’s Okao Vision Face-sensing technology to track users’ heads and enable 3D effects in its upcoming 3D smartphone, According To a report from TechCrunch.

Face-tracking 3D Enables a 3D effect on a normal LCD screen. Four front-facing IR cameras will track the user’s head, and alongwith Omron’s technology, will adjust the on-screen objects as the user’s perspective changes. Amazon’s smartphone will be able to grab the X, Y, and Z coordinates of the user’s face for developers to play with. The tech is demonstrated well in this video.

The phone will join Amazon’s lineup of Kindle Fire devices, documents currently the Kindle Fire HD, HDX, and the Kindle Fire TV. Like Those devices, the phone is expected to run the Fire OS, a Heavily customized fork of Android.

Further Reading

The right display, the right silicon, and, maybe, the right tablet.

Amazon definitely has an uphill battle ahead of it in convincing consumers to buy 3D cellphones. Despite being Heavily pushed by product and media companies, the imperfect 3D technology has had a tough time with consumers. 3D was supposed to be the next big wave in TVs, but clunky glasses and limited viewing angles thwart drew people hit the “off” button. Nintendo tried 3D with the 3DS, but a survey by Interpret LLC saidthat 28 percent of 3DS owners felt the 3D effect detracted from the gameplay. Later, Nintendo released the 2DS, a cheaper version That completely dumped the 3D feature and removed the requirement from 3D games. 3D has even been tried in a phone before with the HTC Evo 3D, Which used the same size screen as the 3DS.

Other than as a neat tech demo, companies have not shown how 3D would be compelling in a phone. The Evo 3D could take 3D pictures, and that was about it. It does not sound like Amazon has come up with any compelling use cases, either, as the report says the 3D is “very limited out of the box.”

Amazon hopes developers will take to the 3D effect and make apps and games That use the feature, but getting developers on board will mean grabbing a huge install base via a low price or bribing developers to support the feature. With four additional cameras just for the 3D effect, Amazon will have to show a compelling reason for adding all that extra hardware, battery drain, and larger price tag. The phone is expected to be revealed at Amazon’s June 18th event.