When I first saw this headline on my iPad this afternoon…
Amazon Is Developing Smartphone With 3-D Screen
… I thought, what on Earth would I want something like that for? I’ve seen 3D movies. I’m not impressed. Who needs that kind of cheesy distraction on a phone?
Then I thought, now what would be cool would be a phone with holographic projection, like the Princess Leia message that R2D2 carried…
Then I actually read the story, and saw this:
One of the devices is a high-end smartphone featuring a screen that allows for three-dimensional images without glasses, these people said. Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles, they said. Users may be able to navigate through content using just their eyes, two of the people said…
OK, now, that’s pretty cool. I’m not promising to give up my iPhone or anything (note: second product placement in this post; why is Apple not paying me to do this?), but I’d like to see that.
But it prompts questions:
- Is the WSJ just not believing what it’s hearing? Talk about your over-attribution… “they said… they said… two of the people said…”
- What do they mean by “seem to float above the screen like a hologram?” Would it not BE a hologram? If not, then what is it? Hypnosis?
- Why have we not seen this technology in a consumer product before now? I’ve been hearing about holograms, it seems, since I was a kid. And while I’m at it, where are those flying cars that were supposed to be here before the 20th century was out?
- Why Amazon? With all sorts of other companies out there with more experience and expertise in digital imaging, how on Earth would the company that sells books (and other stuff) on the Internet beat them to it? Why not Sony? Or Canon? Or Apple? Or HP? For that matter, I would think the Internet porn industry alone would have invested billions seeking this breakthrough…
Anyway, I’d like to see one of those…