Last week I talked about how the OnePlus 8 can see through objects. In the truest sense of the word. Now it turned out that this will not last long and the company will cancel this opportunity with updates. On the one hand, this is a little offensive, since the function has already managed to be liked by many. On the other hand, no one promised this when selling. Therefore, it can be banned until scandals started and no one sued the company for the fact that someone spied on someone through clothes. Moreover, Sony already had this, which in the late 90s had to hastily recall one of its cameras, which could also look through objects. This is what awaits those who have received the opportunity to shine through an object.
This smartphone has made a lot of noise in recent days.
OnePlus sees through objects
Last week it became known that the OnePlus 8 Pro camera can make some materials invisible, creating an X-ray effect. This was possible due to the fact that the camera can receive light in the infrared spectrum, which tends to pass through certain objects, like cellular waves. The human eye does not see such radiation, but the camera, if you do not install an appropriate filter on it, sees it very well. Usually, this filter blocks the IR spectrum very well so as not to spoil the images with light. Sometimes something goes wrong (or on purpose) and the manufacturer puts in a filter that lets in more IR light.
In order to get such an image with transparent objects, it was necessary to enable a special filter, and now OnePlus has said that it will disable this feature in an upcoming update.
It all started not with OnePlus deciding to make a killer feature and let smartphones work like an X-ray. Although, perhaps this was laid, but not advertised. So, when journalists discovered this opportunity (maybe not by chance, but just in time), everyone started talking about OnePlus 8 and it received a lot of free advertising. Maybe I am exaggerating, but I cannot and will not rule out such a possibility.
So through the OnePlus camera, you can partially make objects transparent.
How to take a photo in the IR spectrum
In order to take such a picture, you just had to select one of the filters in the camera settings and then the camera would open from a new side. Gadgets looked best in this mode, the body of which became translucent and you could see their electronic insides.
Initially, according to the company's assurances, it was planned to use color filters in order to change the shades of objects in the photograph. So it was possible, without correcting the image in post-processing, to immediately get an image with, so to speak, a different look in distorted colors.
The hype was due to the fact that such pictures are considered unethical. Let it be impossible to see a person naked by pointing the camera at him, but many still felt unpleasant that someone could at least a little enlighten their clothes. Our colleagues from one of the Western publications added even more fuel to the fire, who first of all decided to enlighten the clothes to check the camera. They placed a sheet of paper with the written text under the T-shirt of one of their colleagues and in general it could be read in the photo.
The inscription under the T-shirt is not very visible, you can see it.
OnePlus will disable some of the camera functions with the update
As a result, OnePlus decided to respond to the outrage. On the one hand, she calmed the popular indignation, and on the other hand, she secured herself against possible legal proceedings. We just lost the opportunity to stare at the TV remote control and see what is under its plastic case.
OnePlus said an update to disable the color filter camera will roll out in China within a week. It is logical to assume that in other markets the update will only be a matter of time. At the same time, for a very short time.
You can go to our Telegram chat right now in order to express your opinion on how the company should act in this difficult situation. It seems to me that such radical steps were inevitable, and it would be wrong to pretend that nothing is happening, but losing this opportunity is also a shame. In the end, it really was, if not a killer feature, then something very interesting and unusual.
Soon we will no longer be able to use this camera function.
Is it possible to disable the functions of an already sold smartphone
On the other hand, ethics and legality from the point of view of those who can be spied on is good and correct, but who will protect the rights of buyers in this situation. When they bought a smartphone, they bought it with a specific set of features. Perhaps they even saw such filters from some of their friends and became interested in using them. As a result, they bought this smartphone just because of this, or it simply influenced the purchase decision at a difficult moment of choice.
Should such buyers receive some kind of compensation for the loss of the features they paid for? If we take a little to the point of absurdity, then we can assume a situation in which a person buys a smartphone with a cool camera, and the camera is turned off altogether. Will it be okay? Of course not. Even if the scale of the hardships here is not the same, there should still be compensation. Or you just have to come to terms with the fact that we live in a world in which there is no concept of a “purchased item”. It turns out that we kind of rented it.