ZTE, one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world had previously rolled out ‘Project CSX’ for crowdsourcing ideas for its next mobile project. The project was a two-fold affair including entry submissions and public voting. It witnessed around 400 entries along with participation from more than 176 countries.The winners for the same were announced back in October with
The winners for this project were announced back in October with an ‘eye-tracking self-adhesive’ smartphone leading the race with 36% of votes. ZTE has now unveiled the final version of the winning phone under the name ‘Hawkeye’.
The design for the phone was revealed at the ongoing CES conference which is quite different from the original concept. Though the phone can be pre-ordered on Kickstarter for $199 starting today, the company plans to release the device by the third quarter of the year.
Speaking on the significant eye-tracking and self-adhesive features, they’ll track movements of user’s eyes in order to take required actions. For the self-adhesive part, it will enable mounting the phone on a wall or any flat surface along with split-screen technology to view different content at the same time.
The tracking system consists of two laser-focusing cameras, on the front and other at the bottom for tracking pupil movements. This will enable scrolling PDF documents, surfing web pages, rewinding or fast forwarding videos etc. The split-screen technology provides a dual directional viewing experience. The phone’s sticky back is made up of medical-grade silicon providing an adequate adhesion strength.
The smartphone’s hardware features include a 5.5-inch edge-to-edge 2K LCD screen display equipped with eye-tracking cameras and light ambient sensors. The phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 823 or newer having 4 GB or 6GB of RAM. Further, it will have an internal storage ranging from 64-128GB with a battery pack between 3500 and 4000mAh.
The rear camera for the smartphone is a 16 MP camera with a f/1.8 aperture, 1.6µm pixel size, 26mm lens, high-dynamic range, optical image stabilization, laser autofocus, and a dual-LED flash. On the front, the phone features an 8 MP camera with f/1.8 aperture, 23mm, optical image stabilization, autofocus, and 1.34 µm pixel size. The phone is available in a cohort of color variants — grey, ruby, blue, green and pink.
The company is further designing a specialized case for the smartphone to support the self-adhesive feature. This phone will be the world’s first crowdsourced and crowdfunded devices after it is officially released by ZTE.
