Apple’s Next iPhone May Have Revolutionary 3D Screen

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Apple may be gearing up to introduce a glasses-free 3D display on its next iPhone.

The Taiwanese media website Economic Daily News reported that the screen would be “naked eye 3D,” meaning that it would be a glasses-free setup. It couldn’t be built using the current embedded touch technology Apple has used in the past, but the site says Apple would again solicit touch screen manufacturer TPK to develop the next-gen phone.

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1970 French singer and actor Johnny Hallyday in a scene from the film 'Point de Chute' (aka 'Falling Point').Keystone/Holton/Getty Images
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1980 An early mobile phone during the Iranian Embassy siege at Princes Gate in South Kensington, London.Kypros/Getty Images
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1993 Whoopi Goldberg during ShoWest in Las Vegas.Jeff Kravitz—FilmMagic/Getty Images
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The report is highly speculative, but Apple has dipped its toes in 3D devices for years, according to MacRumors. Apple applied for a patent six years ago for 3D stereoscopic displays, and applied for a patent for 3D Hyper Reality displays that would change the perspective of objects on a screen in relation to where the user moves their head. Amazon’s Fire Phone also uses what’s called “dynamic perspective” to produce a 3D-like experience.

Apple’s iOS already uses a parallax feature which gives a 3D-style effect to the iPhone screen—try rotating your screen and notice how icons move in relation to the background, giving the phone a feeling of depth.

 

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