By Liyo Kikon
MOBILE phones have come a long way since they became a common necessity, but these days they all seem like the same thing with a different brand slapped into it. Even the latest iPhone does not have any “wow” factors, but then comes a small company with a big vision, I would like to introduce you to “Alienline”. So, what’s new about this phone? Its a 3D phone! Yes, the display will show images and videos with depth without using any 3D glasses. 3D technology has reached a point where using 3D glasses have become second nature but with this technology, we can finally watch 3D content without putting on those funky glasses. Although this technology is not exactly new, the implementation of such tech is uncommon and I’m happy that Alienline has done more than a decade of research to bring us this product.
There are two products which will soon be available - a phone and a tablet. The phone is powered by a 1.5 Ghz Octa-Core Corex 53 chipset while the tablet is powered by a 1.3 Ghz Octa-Core processor. The phone has a 5.5 inch full hd 1920x1080 display while the tablet has a 7 inch 1280x800 screen. Both devices has dual sim capability, expandable memory and the 3D multi touch display. They are both running Android operating system. The jewel of these phones however, is the 3D display. It uses a special geometry surface of an added extra polymer layer which decodes the polar and colour segmentation so that each eye sees only what it was designed to see, creating a perception of depth. Instead of a conventional screen which uses a plain surface to display the images, Alienline’s display uses tiny prisms to display the images to each eye separately, the display switches between the left and right eye at up to 100 frames per second alternately segmenting each frame, thereby giving the user the illusion of an image popping out of the screen.
Since it uses android, all the features of a regular android device will be available and most of the features like the home screen, games or apps will not show up in 3D space unless you run one of the special 3D applications provided with the phone. The 3D applications that come with the phone are K3DX Gallery, 3D Play, 3D Image, 3D Camera, 3D Shopping and GMax 3D game. The K3DX Gallery will turn the phone’s default user interface into 3D and you will see the icons and background with depth. The 3D Play is the default video player for viewing stereoscopic videos which are widely available on common platforms such as Youtube, where the videos are split into left and right images. And yes, you will be able to watch full length movies in 3D using this application. The 3D Image application is the gallery used for viewing images in 3D which you can capture using the camera application or watch any 3D content which you can download online. The 3D camera is a nifty application since it uses the single lens on the back of the device to capture images in 3D. Unlike most conventional 3D cameras which use two lenses for the left and right image, this application requires you to take the picture and slowly move the lens upward as shown in the display and stop when the device has enough information to create a 3D image. This style of capturing 3D images through a single lens is not new, however it is not common either since all other phones don’t have screens capable of displaying 3D content. These devices have an 8 mega pixel sensor on it which is more than enough for a decent photograph or video. Very little is known about the other two apps - 3D Shopping and GMax 3D game, however, the titles on these two are quite self explanatory.
All these features sound great, but sadly, these type of devices might not hit the mainstream market unless some major company take this technology and market it which may never happen. But for all early adopters and hardcore geeks, owning this device now would definitely add another stripe on your shoulder.
You can get Alienline’s devices from their Indigogo campaign or just visit their website www.alienline.com but there is just 10 days left till the campaign ends, so I would suggest you to hurry. Also, check out “Unbox Therapy” on Youtube for a closer look on the device.
