The co-founder of the tech company has broken his silence on the matter
A new smartphone is dividing the internet after a tech buff discovered you could manipulate its camera to see through certain objects. Last week (12 July), a new budget smartphone named the CMF Phone 1 was released by Nothing. The tech company aims to marry accessibility with leading user experience while ‘injecting fun into a boring industry’.
However, the technology is already causing controversy online after one social media user discovered how you can turn the phone’s camera into an ‘X-ray device.’
Taking to Instagram last week, a user that goes by @purely_maxwell posted a Reel claiming: “We have a problem.”
“Here we have the latest phone from Nothing, the CMF Phone 1 and I’ve been using it for a little while now.”
Maxwell went on to say he had been puzzled by one of the phone’s two cameras and had been searching online how to use it to no avail. After some more research, the creator elected to download a third-party camera port in hopes he could switch the camera. “It appeared to be a low-res monochrome camera – that is until I accidentally pointed it against my TV remote.”
In the clip, Maxwell positioned the camera over the back of his remote and showed his audience how the CMF Phone’s camera could see through objects.
In another video posted to YouTube, Maxwell explained: “You can see inside. You can see the batteries inside which you can’t see with the regular camera. But when you switch to the other camera you can see.”
To demonstrate the power of the phone further, Maxwell used it to see through a black bin bag and a gray T-shirt.
The content creator also confirmed that he’d toggled no extra settings to use what is being dubbed the ‘X-ray camera.’
After watching the clip, fans of the tech object have flocked to X to have their say on the alleged finding. One user typed: “Camera evolution is going at good speed. Next target for camera to zoom to the other planet species and find aliens.” A second joked: “Now I can find out the amount of Lays in a packet.” “I was thinking to buy the phone only to use this,” penned another user.
Following the now-viral video, Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis has had his say on the matter. Taking to X on July 13, the businessman wrote: “At Nothing, we have some of the most knowledgeable and crafty users in the world. It’s also fair to say that our popularity attracts a lot of scrutiny. Ultimately, this drives continuous improvement, benefiting users – so we see it as a good thing.”
He said while there are ‘hundreds of millions of these camera depth sensors’ on the market, this particular CMF Phone 1 user went the ‘extra mile and accessed the output of the depth sensor via a third-party app in developer mode, achieving a see-through effect.’
Explaining how this works, Evangelidis continued: “We use triangulation to generate depth-of-field data by collecting images from the depth sensor and main camera to create cut-outs and apply blur effects using specific algorithms for the portrait mode.
“Unlike typical cameras, our depth sensor doesn’t have an infrared light filter, enhancing its light-capturing ability. By definition, this includes infrared light, which can sometimes reveal the internal structure of thin or semi-transparent objects, especially when it’s black acrylic material.”
He added that while users cannot access this ‘depth sensor output via the Nothing camera app,’ he understands that the viral clip could ‘raise some concerns.’ “As a result, we will restrict third-party apps from accessing the depth sensor output through a software update expected within a week.”
