3d cellphones are coming!

Take a look to the new “WOOO” cellphone from au, Japanese mobile operator:

It has many awesome features:

• Pivoting screen to show movies
• DTV tuner with recording option
• 5 megapixel camera
• On-demand video, bluetooth audio streaming, microsd reader, “electronic wallet” feature, push mail, etc…

But, in Japan, this is “quite normal” features for a cellphone. 😎
The unique feature for this cellphone is the display!!! It is made by Hitachi, and it is an autostereoscopic 3d!! That means it can show 3d images without wearing any special glasses!!! 🙀
How it works? I saw a working example at the Shibuya NHK museum when i went to Japan in May 2008. 😜
Have you ever seen a lenticular image? That’s it, the concept is very similar, there is a pixel column that only the left eye can see, and another pixel column that only the right eye can see. The effect is spectacular!! That’s why it is named “WOOO” 😉
This opens great scenarios for gaming! The PSP will be outdated! 🎮

But… there is a small flaw in this system… if the head is slightly moving, the effect will vanish. The head must be stationary… it will be impossible to use this cellphone on a train or bus. However, at the Hitachi company, they know this defect, so this cellphone has a button to disable the 3d vision, and come back to the plain old 2d. 😁

Stop! I know you are planning a trip to Japan to buy this phone! Unfortunately you can’t: it is sold contract-only and it will only work on the Japanese CDMA2000 standard from au… 😭