OnePlus has introduced a new device concept, the simply called OnePlus 8T Concept. Based on the existing OnePlus 8T, this new device concept allows the company to showcase some of the technologies it has been working on.
The OnePlus 8T Concept features a color-changing film under the rear glass. The film contains metal oxide and can change its colors according to the different voltages applied by changing the valence state of the metal ions. The film can change its color from silver to dark blue and vice versa.
The rear glass is etched to mimic the shape of the Pamukkale hot spring terraces in Turkey.
The other thing that sets the OnePlus 8T Concept apart from the standard 8T is that it features a mmWave radar system, which can transmit and receive electromagnetic waves. This enables the radar system to perceive, image, locate and track objects. It can do this at a millimeter level and it also works in any lighting condition in a way that a ToF optical system might not.
So what does all of this accomplish? In its current version, OnePlus says that the color-changing glass can be used as a notification system. The mmWave radar, which is embedded below the rear camera system, can be used to detect hand gestures and, for example, you can accept or reject calls by moving your hand over the device.
OnePlus also created a breathing monitor app, which uses mmWave radar to track the movement of your chest and can calculate the rate at which you are breathing.
The OnePlus 8T Concept is designed by a team within OnePlus called OnePlus Gaudi. This is the same team that created the OnePlus Concept One device that the company unveiled earlier this year at CES 2020. The Gaudi team consists of 39 designers from Shenzhen, Taipei, New York and India.
As with the Concept One, the OnePlus 8T Concept is not intended to go on sale. It only shows some of the technology that the company is currently working on and may include, in another shape or form, in future devices.
