If there is a field that has popped up in the world of smartphones in recent years, and will continue to be a contender in the future, that's what cameras are. Not only because of the quality they have received, but also because of the wide variety of manufacturers today that combine different types of sensors and lenses to take great pictures in many cases.
Cameras have been a breakthrough in the design of smartphones and various models have taken various designs to integrate them. Now OnePlus wants to make them disappear. Not that the manufacturer makes smartphones out of the camera, but wants to hide them from looking.
CES Las Vegas is soon starting and the company has posted on Twitter a brief preview of what they will show you: the concept of a smartphone that represents the technology that hides behind-the-scenes cameras under the automatic glass:
We'll introduce you #OnePlusConceptOne to # CES2020, but to avoid the wait you can check out its new "invisible camera" and its color-changing glass technology. pic.twitter.com/mqnt4cQ8II
– OnePlus Spain (@OnePlus_ES) January 3, 2020
Electrochromic glass to hide cameras
They call it the OnePlus Concept One and, as its name implies, it's a concept smartphone that won't be sold soon, as it was exclusively featured on Wired. What makes it "unique" is its ability to make the rear camera lenses disappear so the more refined design remains.
This is achieved by placing electrochromatic glass in front of the camera module, which is able to pull and “distribute” the glass through an electrical signal and thus can hide its rear surface in less than a second, according to Pete Lau himself. Here you can see it working with the prototype:
This technology is not new, but we have not seen it until now in use in the world of smartphones. According to Wired, OnePlus has returned to work with McLaren to take him to the concept. Electrochromism is used, for example, in some of the top car candle diving companies and is also used on planes, touching both the cabinets and passenger windows themselves with a button.
Just don't renew your hopes because we won't see this kind of technology in our hands in a short time. The Concept One to be displayed by OnePlus at CES is proof of concept, it will not be sold and we do not know much about it, though all suggest that its rear camera will have the same 48 + 16 megapixel sensors of the OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren system.
The good news is that this type of technology will allow the cameras to be hidden, but that would also mean that manufacturers have to fully integrate the modules into the body in order to produce no millimeters.
On the other hand, this also means replacing the extra layer of lenses, which can affect its quality, as well as adding one element that can be damaged or broken in the future, while at the same time being extra use to produce that electrical signal (although the power requirement should be minimal). In a few days OnePlus will give us all the details.
