Intel and Nokia have announced the creation of a new lab to be located in Finland to jointly explore 3D technologies for smartphone applications.
The new lab will be located at the Center for Internet Excellence at the University of Oulu according to a report by DailyFinance. The venture aims to find ways of representing smartphone user’s trends towards social networking and media consumption.
“There’s an opportunity for this joint innovation center to shape this, in terms of the synthesis of virtual and physical world and location-based services,” said Intel Labs director Martin Curley.
Intel and Nokia had formerly announced cooperation on software for improving systems in a variety of computer applications and not just smartphones. The two companies have also been collaborating on the MeeGo operating system which is expected to power future Nokia smartphone devices.
The joint venture appears to be aimed at finding interface mechanisms to exploit 3D hardware increasingly prevalent in smartphones. Many smartphones carry such hardware but user interfaces have generally remained traditionally 2D.