18 ms·

Amazing Community-driven Mobile Phone Concept by Mozilla [video]

71 points by patrickaljord 16y ago

aresant 16y ago
Wow, don't miss this. I'm ready for a combo IR touchpad, keyboard, and PICO projector right now. Brilliant work.
- guywithabike 16y ago
  What's brilliant about just making up a bunch of stuff? "This phone has a 50mp camera, built in cinema-quality projector, Blu-Ray player, and 1TB storage. As well as an insulin monitor, sink, and magic pony."
  - InclinedPlane 16y ago
    This. Sure, they integrated all of these unicorns and faerie dust together very well and very convincingly, but ultimately it's still just fantasy. The advantage of a design concept predicated on technology that's not. quite. there. yet. is that you can save embarrassment from failing to make it a reality by being dependent on technologies that may not even make it to market. Ultimately that's a form of design cowardice.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jamalah 16y ago
brilliant, thats my next phone! phone?? wtf!
jsankey 16y ago
If (like me) you normally skip video links, give this one a go. It's brief and all visual, so a video really makes sense in this case. And, practical or otherwise, it's creative and thought provoking!
wriq 16y ago
I hate concept videos. They solely exist to raise everyones expectations to unattainable levels. Should the product ever get released people will be disappointed by realities like battery capacity and a pico projector only working in a very dark room. I wish others would adopt Apple's strategy of announcing a product with a live demo and a release date within months of that showing. * I get this is a Mozilla 'vision' but watching videos of the MS Courier left me bitter concept videos </rant>
- eob 16y ago
  I remain surprised that people thought the MS Courier concept videos were anything but.
liamk 16y ago
Amazing phone + high quality video. Could something like this actually work with today's batteries?
nitrogen 16y ago
I've been waiting for a pico-projector-enabled phone since I saw The Island.
Zak 16y ago
The UI on the phone appears to be Android, while the UI projected on the screen looks an awful lot like Windows 7. Running Win7 in a VM on a phone seems like it would be pushing the hardware a bit. A bit more seriously, how production-ready are IR-based input devices and pico projectors? I get the impression that this is more sci-fi than a design study for a practical product based on current technology.
- elblanco 16y ago
  http://www.gsmarena.com/samsungs_first_projector_phone_sees_daylight_at_ces_2009-news-732.php http://www.gsmarena.com/samsungs_first_projector_phone_sees_...
rb2k_ 16y ago
Just because somebody can make a 3D animation of something doesn't mean that they can build it. I know it's a "concept", but so is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE4Wn0cjrO4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE4Wn0cjrO4 (German, but video speaks for itself)
jasonwatkinspdx 16y ago
It's a decent video, but it's also just a dream with nothing restraining it in terms of feasibility. The challenge of good design is making the best of what's possible. Concepts that are only on paper or in image don't present that challenge, and so it's hard for me to get excited by them. After all, we should have flying cars and jetpacks by now right?
J3L2404 16y ago
Bloody seabird flavor! Implementation is the albatross.
ZeroGravitas 16y ago
They should have made the projected keyboard more Swype-y. I think though that in the existing IR keyboards there's one beam for "drawing" the keyboard, and a second invisible beam parallel with the surface which actually detects where your fingers are pressing. It's not clear where that second beam is coming from in this video. You could probably do the touchpad with just that single invisible beam, though of course iPhone and Android aren't made for touchpads and cursor arrows, but rather for direct finger interaction.
Tichy 16y ago
The pomegranate is way better: http://www.pomegranatephone.com/ http://www.pomegranatephone.com/
- elblanco 16y ago
  The funny thing is...some of this tech really exists. I have voice to voice translation out of my Android phone, and Samsung sells a phone with a projector. And http://apps.absolutelyandroid.com/harmonica-iphone-1537/app http://apps.absolutelyandroid.com/harmonica-iphone-1537/app Some things, like the translater aren't too hot first generation type deals, I wouldn't conduct a business meeting with it. But I might haggle over the price of some clothes in a border town market in Mexico.
elblanco 16y ago
Yes please! (actually I'm surprised in their pseudo desktop mode while docked they didn't try and use the display as a touchpad like interface.

71 points by patrickaljord 16y ago

aresant 16y ago

Wow, don't miss this. I'm ready for a combo IR touchpad, keyboard, and PICO projector right now. Brilliant work.

guywithabike 16y ago
What's brilliant about just making up a bunch of stuff? "This phone has a 50mp camera, built in cinema-quality projector, Blu-Ray player, and 1TB storage. As well as an insulin monitor, sink, and magic pony."
- InclinedPlane 16y ago
  This. Sure, they integrated all of these unicorns and faerie dust together very well and very convincingly, but ultimately it's still just fantasy. The advantage of a design concept predicated on technology that's not. quite. there. yet. is that you can save embarrassment from failing to make it a reality by being dependent on technologies that may not even make it to market. Ultimately that's a form of design cowardice.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

jamalah 16y ago

brilliant, thats my next phone! phone?? wtf!

jsankey 16y ago

If (like me) you normally skip video links, give this one a go. It's brief and all visual, so a video really makes sense in this case. And, practical or otherwise, it's creative and thought provoking!

wriq 16y ago

I hate concept videos. They solely exist to raise everyones expectations to unattainable levels. Should the product ever get released people will be disappointed by realities like battery capacity and a pico projector only working in a very dark room. I wish others would adopt Apple's strategy of announcing a product with a live demo and a release date within months of that showing. * I get this is a Mozilla 'vision' but watching videos of the MS Courier left me bitter concept videos </rant>

eob 16y ago
I remain surprised that people thought the MS Courier concept videos were anything but.

liamk 16y ago

Amazing phone + high quality video. Could something like this actually work with today's batteries?

nitrogen 16y ago

I've been waiting for a pico-projector-enabled phone since I saw The Island.

Zak 16y ago

The UI on the phone appears to be Android, while the UI projected on the screen looks an awful lot like Windows 7. Running Win7 in a VM on a phone seems like it would be pushing the hardware a bit. A bit more seriously, how production-ready are IR-based input devices and pico projectors? I get the impression that this is more sci-fi than a design study for a practical product based on current technology.

elblanco 16y ago
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsungs_first_projector_phone_sees_daylight_at_ces_2009-news-732.php http://www.gsmarena.com/samsungs_first_projector_phone_sees_...

rb2k_ 16y ago

Just because somebody can make a 3D animation of something doesn't mean that they can build it. I know it's a "concept", but so is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE4Wn0cjrO4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE4Wn0cjrO4 (German, but video speaks for itself)

jasonwatkinspdx 16y ago

It's a decent video, but it's also just a dream with nothing restraining it in terms of feasibility. The challenge of good design is making the best of what's possible. Concepts that are only on paper or in image don't present that challenge, and so it's hard for me to get excited by them. After all, we should have flying cars and jetpacks by now right?

J3L2404 16y ago

Bloody seabird flavor! Implementation is the albatross.

ZeroGravitas 16y ago

They should have made the projected keyboard more Swype-y. I think though that in the existing IR keyboards there's one beam for "drawing" the keyboard, and a second invisible beam parallel with the surface which actually detects where your fingers are pressing. It's not clear where that second beam is coming from in this video. You could probably do the touchpad with just that single invisible beam, though of course iPhone and Android aren't made for touchpads and cursor arrows, but rather for direct finger interaction.

Tichy 16y ago

The pomegranate is way better: http://www.pomegranatephone.com/ http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

elblanco 16y ago
The funny thing is...some of this tech really exists. I have voice to voice translation out of my Android phone, and Samsung sells a phone with a projector. And http://apps.absolutelyandroid.com/harmonica-iphone-1537/app http://apps.absolutelyandroid.com/harmonica-iphone-1537/app Some things, like the translater aren't too hot first generation type deals, I wouldn't conduct a business meeting with it. But I might haggle over the price of some clothes in a border town market in Mexico.

elblanco 16y ago

Yes please! (actually I'm surprised in their pseudo desktop mode while docked they didn't try and use the display as a touchpad like interface.