At CES 2020, OnePlus announced a concept phone based on the OnePlus 7T Pro. The phone, which is officially known as the OnePlus Concept One, was made in collaboration with McLaren. The highlight of the phone is its “invisible” rear cameras which become visible when an electric current is passed through the piece of electrochromic glass covering the sensors. It is a pretty neat trick that gives the phone a very unique look. Now OnePlus is back with another concept smartphone called the OnePlus 8T Concept and it too has a really cool design trick too.
Just as the name says, this is a concept phone based on the latest OnePlus flagship, the OnePlus 8T. However, the rear panel of the OnePlus 8T Concept distinguishes it from the regular model and even the Cyberpunk 2077 Limited Edition.
The back of the phone is covered in a slab of glass but has a metal oxide film underneath that changes color when the voltage applied to it is varied. Yes, this is also electrochromic glass technology. The pattern of the color-changing film looks like globules of oil in water but OnePlus says that the inspiration for the design came from the hot springs of Pamukkale in Turkey. and OnePlus says the shift in color can be as a result of a new notification or incoming call. But that isn’t all it can do.
The functions increase when paired with a radar module that is placed in the camera housing. The module is based on mmWave technology and according to OnePlus, it is “borrowed from 5G” but doesn’t have communication functions. The radar module transmits and receives electromagnetic waves. When it receives electromagnetic waves, “the DSP (digital signal processing) works with the CPU to perform signal and information processing, allowing the device to perceive, locate, and track objects” explains OnePlus. This means that it responds to gestures, so a user can pass their hand over it to reject a call when the back of the phone changes color to show that a call is coming in.
OnePlus says the radar can also sense your breathing and send the information back to the film so it switches between colors that sync with your breathing thus serving as a “biofeedback device”.
The film switches between just two colors – dark blue to light silver but it will be nice if there were more. Red will definitely be nice and we can already imagine the square OnePlus logo glowing red when you have a missed call or glowing green when you receive a WhatsApp message.
Just like the OnePlus Concept One, the OnePlus 8T Concept is not going to be available for purchase as revealed to The Verge but we hope OnePlus can integrate the technology even if it is on a much smaller level such as for the OnePlus logo example we cited above in future devices.
0 Comments