Amazon Reportedly Developing Smartphone with 3D Screen Tech

Amazon may be developing a smartphone that features a display that utilizes 3D technology in addition to a set-top box.

According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, this new smartphone and set-top box would be only two of an entire line of consumer electronics aimed at expanding the company’s reach outside of its Kindle Fire tablets.

Among these devices would be the aforementioned high-end smartphone with a 3D display, a second smartphone, and a device that would only be capable of streaming audio.

Reportedly, each one of these devices are in development at Lab126, an Amazon research and development center in Cupertino California. These sources indicate that the devices are referred to internally as Project A, B, C, and D or the Alpha Projects altogether.

These products would be released in the “coming months”, though the Wall Street Journal is careful to note that these devices might not ever see the light of day for business reasons.

Read: Amazon Kindle Phone to Compete against iPhone, Nexus

The 3D technology used in the high-end smartphone allegedly, wouldn’t require 3D glasses and would make use of retina tracking technologies to enable a sort of holographic experience. Things on the display would appear three-dimensional at all angles and allow users to navigate the entire device with “just their eyes”, according to these sources.

The eye tracking experiences as described wouldn’t be all that different from what Samsung does with its newest flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S4. With the Galaxy S4, users can control nearly everything on the device by hovering their fingers of the device’s interface using AirView, and browse websites using Air Gesture.

Read: Samsung Galaxy S4 Software Hands-On

Reports of an Amazon smartphone first surfaced in July 2012. At that time it was believed that Amazon had partnered with Amazon to develop the handset.

An Android powered smartphone would be a logical next step for Amazon, since debuting its Kindle Fire tablets, the company has made a business out of selling devices at low prices points to encourage users to connect to its Amazon Prime digital media services. All of its consumer electronics to date have featured Android under pinning’s, with the company’s own user-interface and media store replacing the stock Android interface and Google Play Store.