High-end camera maker RED is making the Hydrogen One, a similarly high-end camera phone with one very unusual feature. Well, unusual if you believe its creators and we all like to think that the things we create are special, don’t we?
The Hydrogen One is supposed to have a “holographic display”, whatever that means, which sets it apart from other smartphones out there. Well, that and RED’s camera chops. And while we haven’t had a chance to fiddle with the Hydrogen’s cam, we’ve now got a better idea of what the display involves thanks to an official partnership announcement.
RED is teaming up with a company called Leia Inc., which has been working on a “lightfield holographic display” for some time. The company name makes sense, since most folks have that projected scene of Princess Leia Organa from the first Star Wars film in mind when they thing of holograms. Funny you should think that, actually…
What the Hydrogen One’s holographic display does, in a nutshell, is utilise “…Nano-Photonic design and manufacturing to provide a complete lightfield “holographic” display solution for mobile devices, through proprietary hardware and software.” Which is a fancy way of saying it’s got a custom, high-tech display that is able to show items that look like they are protruding from the screen. A little like this Leia concept video from 2015.
We still haven’t seen an actual demonstration of the tech, though others have had eyes-on with the feature. It may be that it doesn’t translate well to photo or video, or maybe RED are just pleased with all the interest and want to milk it for as long as possible. But before we decide to plonk down (at least) R16,000 on the first ever smartphone RED has made, we’d like to see it in action. The moment we do, we’ll let you know whether it’s about as on-target as a Stormtrooper or if it’s our only smartphone hope. Release of the phone is set for around mid-2018 so we’re expecting a first look at CES in January 2018 at the earliest.
Source: via The Verge
