Alleged Amazon smartphone to reportedly come with tilt gesture support

We have already seen the first alleged glimpse of Amazon's upcoming smartphone's prototype - one of the two rumoured devices that the online retail giant is said to have been working on for more than a year.

Now, a new leak tips that the alleged Amazon smartphone, much like the company's Kindle tablet range, will run a highly customised Android OS and will also support tilt gestures for interacting with various apps.

BGR, citing some of its sources, claims that the alleged Amazon smartphone will make use of a combination of cameras, sensors and software for interacting with the device. Further, the report notes that the combination will make use of a number of 3D effects on the Amazon smartphone.

As reported earlier, the prototype high-end model of the rumoured Amazon smartphone is said to sport a total of six cameras: one at the rear, one at the top-front panel, while four are placed on four corners on the front. The report also suggested that the four camera units are low-power infrared cameras that would work with other sensors on the Amazon smartphone for the 3D effects on the screen.

BGR also claims that the Internet retailer will introduce new gesture controls on its first smartphone, such as tilt in different directions while the device is being used to display additional details on the display without even touching the screen.

The report further details some of the gesture functions in the yet-to-be-named Amazon smartphone, like if a user performs tilt gesture after searching a place in the maps app, Yelp ratings will appear for various results on the searched place's map.

Another tilt gesture function is said to be used in Amazon's video store, which is likely to show IMDb ratings on top of movie thumbnails.

In addition, apart from sensors and multiple gesture functions, the alleged Amazon smartphone is said to come with optical character recognition (OCR) and other technology which will automatically recognise text and convert it to a digital note if a user captures image of signs and other real-life objects with printed text using the device's primary rear camera.

An earlier leak had tipped that the e-commerce giant has been working with third-party developers to build apps for its 3D interface. Another report had suggested that Amazon has been preparing to launch its long-rumoured smartphone in the second half of the year, citing people briefed on the company's plans.