

A Chinese firm rolled out what it claims is the world’s first-ever holographic smartphone on Thursday afternoon in Beijing.

Called the Estar Takee 1, the smartphone generates holographic images with four front-facing cameras that track users’ eye movements to create 3D images, an approach that’s been likened to technology employed with Amazon’s Fire Phone.

Digital Trends elaborates:

Does that make the world’s first claim redundant? Maybe not. A promo video, along with the official page advertising the device, all make it seem like the Takee takes its holographic effect and moves it beyond just the interface, and apply it to games, movies, video calls, and a variety of other interesting features. However, without seeing the device in action, it’s difficult to know exactly how true all this is. For example, the video shows the phone “projecting” a 3D image off the screen, whether it’s from an app or an incoming video call, which is really exciting. If it can really do it. The footage gives the impression everyone can see the holographic boy on the screen, but if the cameras are only tracking the user’s eyes, that probably won’t be the case. The same can be said for the explosions, racing cars, and 3D galaxies.

The cameras can recognize hand gestures, allowing the user to swipe in the air to unlock the phone and navigate home screens—a feature which Digital Trends points out has been boasted by an in-the-works Nokia Windows phone.

The phone otherwise features a 5.5-inch1080p screen, a 13-megapixel camera, 32GB of memory and a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek processor with 2GB of RAM. It will be available in black, white, and apparently one model will be wrapped in 18k gold.

Liu Meihong, CEO of ShenZhen Estar Displaytech Co., Ltd., said the company has invested millions of RMB in the invention and foresees the holographic tech being applied to online games, music, maps, navigation and possibly resurrecting Tupac .







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