When fans noticed the unintentional use of a “depth” camera in Nothing’s quirky new smartphone, the CMF 1, the Nothing co-founder was quick to respond. Akis Evangelidis.
He promised to tout what are likely to be the most talked-about features of the new low-cost Android device, the CMF 1, which is available in the U.S. for just $199 through Nothing’s beta program.
When CMF 1 user Maxwell Lu started tinkering with the phone’s software, they did what any self-respecting Android geek would do: they switched onto Developer Mode and used a third-party app to access the camera system’s native functionality.
Here’s the kicker: At $199, the CMF 1 keeps the price down by having just a single 50MP main camera to handle all your photography and videography tasks, but it does come with a cheap 2MP “depth” sensor that owners were hoping to see if it could do anything useful besides provide depth-of-field data in some way.
It turns out that the humble monochrome sensor has the ability to penetrate surfaces, and the unfiltered infrared light it emits can penetrate thin plastic and reveal what’s underneath. This allows the CMF 1 smartphone to see through remote controls and show the battery underneath the cover, for example.
“Unlike typical cameras, our depth sensor does not have an infrared filter, enhancing its light-capturing capabilities,” Akis explained. “By definition, this includes infrared light, which can reveal the internal structure of thin or translucent objects, especially in the case of black acrylic materials.”
He further informed that Nothing has no intention of advertising the option, and that phones with the latest updates don’t seem to be able to do the see-through trick for now. Akis Evangelidis explained that Nothing was quick to respond to privacy and security concerns, even though fans had argued that it would be pretty cool to have a peaky camera feature on a budget phone like the CMF 1.
Sure, the Oppo Find X3 Pro had a cool feature – a microscopic camera that could take macro photos of tick heads – but it was also a much more expensive phone, and while it was a cool party trick, that extra camera never caught on.
But on the list of unusual camera uses, having a see-through set on a $199 phone is pretty much up there at the top, so Nothing fans might be sad to see this use of the depth camera go away.
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Daniel has been an avid tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010 and has been passionate about mobile technology since the days of Windows Mobile. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software and carrier networks, with a keen interest in digital health, automotive connectivity and the future of 5G. Outside of work, Daniel enjoys traveling, reading, exploring new tech innovations and pondering the implications of ethics and privacy in our digital future.
