As CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada continues to surprise us with all kinds of new tech gadgets featuring many surprising capabilities, we have surely seen our fair share of virtual reality products lately. Becoming a hot topic for 2016 already, Intel has surprised us with a new smartphone in the making, featuring a 3D ‘RealSense’ camera that is able to recognize 3D objects and gestures. Intel’s 3D RealSense camera, identified as ZR300, will pack a high-precision accelerometer, gyroscope, and a lens to offer a variety of wide field of view motion capturing all within a thin and sleek Android device.
The ZR300 will be able to stream a VGA resolution at 60 frames per second allowing it to time stamp between sensors giving it an advanced tracking system with amazing synchronization capabilities. It is supported by Google’s Project Tango specs, which is a technology platform that uses computer vision to enable mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to detect their position relative to the world around them using GPS (Global Positioning System) or other external signals. Using this technology it allows for the RealSense Camera ZR300 to map indoor areas and build from that learning the area around it which will aid in virtual reality and things like drone control products.
The Intel RealSense smartphone is more of a developer phone and is not intended for the everyday smartphone user. It’s powered by Intel’s own Atom X7-Z8700 processor while maintaining average specs compared to most flagship smartphones. Sporting a 6-inch QHD 2560 x 1440 display powered by Intel’s Gen 8 graphics chip, the smartphone will only feature 2GB of memory while also allowing for 64GB of internal storage. Although it features subpar camera specs in today’s world of higher megapixel cameras the RealSense smartphone will have an 8MP RGB rear camera, which will allow for very accurate color image capturing, followed by a front facing 2MP camera. This phone’s camera capabilities is most accurately highlighted in its ability to map the depth of environments and to use 3D renderings of people and objects to capture high-quality depth data. And because the device supports the Google Project Tango SDK as well as the Intel RealSense SDK add-on for Android, this will give developers the chance to create software applications all on a single mobile platform. Costing only $399 the developer smartphone kit can be reserved on Intel’s online market.