© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Samsung Galaxy S11 |
By Josh Levenson, TechRadar
Samsung is working on an exciting new docking station for the Samsung Galaxy S11
that can take the handset's notifications and project them into thin
air as what the Korean company refers to as an "aerial" image. To the
rest of us, that's a hologram.
We won't dive too deep into the technical side of how the feature
works, since most of the details we have are nothing more than
conjecture drummed up from a few scraps of information found in a recent
patent filing (first spotted by Let'sGoDigital).
From what we can discern, there's a mirror and a retro-reflective
element baked into the docking station – aimed just the right angle to
draw light from the handset's curved screen and create the hologram – as
well as a wireless charging element.
The feature will be used to project incoming notifications – such as a
newly-received message or a telephone call – and pertinent information,
like the date and time, the weather, breaking news and details about
media currently playing on the device.
This last detail is
particularly interesting as the patent hints that the station will also
support touch-based control for skipping tracks, as well as the ability
to recognise gestures. So you may be able to filter through songs with
the mere wave of a finger.
These gestures will be used to complete
other tasks, including sifting through different notifications,
expanding images and playing videos, the documentation reveals – all
without having to remove the handset from the docking station.
The
patent also notes that it's also working on a smart speaker and flip
case that serve the same purpose – taking notifications and displaying
them as holograms.
Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy S11 in February 2020.
It's rumoured to ship with a colossal 108MP rear-facing camera with a five-times optical zoom and a spectrometer for measuring everything from how dehydrated you are to how many calories are in a banana. It could even have a sliding screen.
COMMENTS