Amazon 3D UI Smartphone Powered by Okao's Face Tracking Tech: Report

Amazon recently announced a June 18 event where it is due to make an announcement. The company is expected to launch its first much-anticipated smartphone at the event, a device that has been rumoured to feature a 3D interface for a while.

The Internet retail giant also teased the smartphone in a 50-second video, which accidentally gave the world a very brief look at the smartphone's top panel, consequently confirming that the device that will see light of the day on June 18 is a smartphone.

Now, a new report claims that Amazon's yet-to-be-announced smartphone uses a Japanese technology that tracks users' head movements and facial expressions. TechCrunch reports that Amazon's upcoming smartphone features Omron's Okao Vision face sensing technology to track the user's head. The report suggests that the Japanese technology has been customised by the Amazon team to make the handset's standard LCD display offer 'unique' stereoscopic effects.

Omron details its face-sensing technology on its website, "By visually sensing and extracting useful information from face images, Omron aims to provide various kinds of services optimized for each individual. These services will match their interfaces and contents to user's capabilities, preferences, condition, attributes, and applicability."

It's worth noting that the 50-second teaser video posted by Amazon showed people sharing their thoughts about the smartphone, while staring downward at something just off-camera, moving their heads from side-to-side to try different vantage points. The people made comments such as "I don't know how you guys do it" and "It's very real-life".

Earlier leaks have indicated that the unannounced Amazon smartphone would pack a total of six cameras: one at the rear, one at the top-front panel, while four are placed on the corners on the front. The report also suggested that the four camera units would be low-power infrared cameras that can work with other sensors on the Amazon smartphone for the 3D effects on the screen.

Previous reports had tipped that the e-commerce giant has been working with third-party developers to build apps for its 3D interface, which could also include a special shopping section.

Further, the report notes that the upcoming Amazon smartphone will run a forked version of Android (as reported earlier) dubbed FireOS, the same found on Kindle tablets.

Some of the rumoured specifications of the yet-to-be-named Amazon smartphone include a 4.7-inch HD display; quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor; 2GB of RAM and six camera modules.