Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets appear to be only the first volley in its hardware wars, with a set-top box and two different smartphones said to be under development.
TechCrunch reported Wednesday that Amazon is developing not one, but two different smartphones, including a high-end model featuring a 3D user interface and packed with multiple cameras for facial tracking.
The rumored project, codenamed "Smith," reportedly uses four cameras - one at each corner of the handset - to track the user's head and eyes in order to give the illusion that the screen is actually in three dimensions.
In theory, the feature could provide a more accurate version of the parallax effect used with Apple's latest iOS 7, which is controlled by internal sensors of the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad running the operating system.
Spreading like wildfire
It's unclear how Amazon plans to absorb the manufacturing cost of three additional cameras (counting a fifth rear-facing camera for photos and video), but the report suggests real-world image recognition as one such possibility, which would make it easier to purchase products from the e-tailer.
While no one knows for sure what kind of operating system might power the high-end smartphone, an anonymous poster on Hacker News claims that a second, budget-priced model running the company's Fire OS is also in the cards and could debut before the end of this year.
Fire OS is a forked version of Google's Android that currently powers Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets and has been rumored to also run a branded set-top box capable of streaming music, movies and TV show content into living rooms.
Amazon's future hardware is a closely-guarded secret within the company's Lab126 facility in Cupertino, where several projects named after letters of the alphabet are said to "shipped around internally inside a locked metal case" with only the displays visible.
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Source : techradar[dot]com
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