I'd much prefer a TV that was transparent when switched off over the giant black rectangle of doom in my living room. I find myself switching it on to have the Apple TV screensaver instead, just because it's so imposing otherwise.
The black rectangle problem isn't talked about enough. Screensavers are something, but have their own problems. I'm surprised there aren't more mechanical solutions (e.g. roll-down shade).
So instead of a black rectangle, you just have a shade of whatever material in the same shape as the black rectangle? How is that an improvement.
I like the use of the screensaver as it is something closer to having art on the walls, only it is updating. Even if you had a large piece of art under the screen so it was visible when the TV was off would still be better than some roll-down shade.
It's not transparent. It's a screen on the outside and you see what the cameras pick up on the inside. What is shown to people isn't even your real face/eyes, it's a a digital representation of it.
Does anyone know if the screendoor effect on the LG transparent OLED in the second picture is an artifact of taking a picture in subpar conditions or just how the display looks? I've heard CES can be a nightmare for pictures so I'm hoping its the former rather than the latter.
I don't think there is a significant market for transparent displays. We have had transparent monochrome LCDs for a long time and transparent OLED also already exist as well. The use for it is limited however the tech to achieve it is a milestone allowing better processes for "regular" TVs etc.
I recall there being a game and watch Mario game with a transparent LCD back in the day. Not many things use the tech.
The difference between micro LED and LCDs is that the LED displays actually emit light whereas the LCD displays only get darker. It's completely different, it's like comparing an original game boy and an OLED iPhone.
Are you kidding me? Transparent displays when scaled sufficiently will allow AR glasses that don't suck. Complex tasks will have AR overlays telling people exactly what to do and giving feedback on task performance in real time. Even better, all the VR side effects due to refresh rate/fps/etc will be non-issues because you'll be looking at the real world.
This isn't actually the case; we've had transparent displays for years, and they don't help AR. Hold your finger to your eye. Can you make out its prints?
Existing AR/VR displays are a hack around the human focal length, not a hack around solid displays.
Transparent OLEDs have been demo'd for ages now. They are a flashy demo, and show off R&D and production capabilities. They haven't really materialized into broad consumer products though, perhaps due to limited market & practicality, custom nature of applications, performance, or cost.
To make transparent microLEDs appear in your local Best Buy, something should be different about them vs OLEDs - so I don't trust these to make it out of CES either.
I've personally seen transparent OLED displays in museum displays. So the market is definitely closer to that of video walls, than of 85-inch televisions made for the living room. I could see it coming to controlled conditions like supermarket freezer window panes, but not something architectural.
Sure, the signage business might not be high volume relative to consumer electronics. However, engineering entire new use-cases to target larger markets might not be worthwhile, if supply and pricing cannot meet market expectations due to yield constraints.
For anyone wanting to make a transparent OLED, you can just peel the backing foil off a regular OLED.
Beware that without the foil, the OLED is super fragile - the back touching anything will make rows/columns break, so if I were you I'd replace it with a sheet of clear plastic/glass for actual use.
My 2c: you see transparent displays in movies (e.g. Minority Report) because they're cool but also for the Hollywood-practical reason that it allows the audience to see the body language and facial expressions of the user/protagonist.
IRL, you don't want everyone seeing your screen and don't want the visual distraction of seeing other peoples' screens. If you want to share, it's trivial to screenshare to their device, project on a wall, put two thin monitors back-to-back, etc.
I can only see very limited market uses like possibly store window displays or some theme park attraction.
I don’t know how that can justify the R&D expense.
It depends on execution, but I could see transparent screens being nice for a desk setup where privacy isn’t a concern. They could make for a cleaner, more open, less cluttered feel than could be had with traditional displays.
One could also more easily have arbitrary logical divisions of transparent screens. For instance one could set up a single transparent superultrawide screen to function as three separate displays if they wanted (useful for having multiple sets of virtual desktops) with transparency being used to create aesthetically pleasing divisions between each virtual screen (imagine each screen as a roundrect).
A big empty stretch of wall space would be as awkward (or more) than a large black monolith in my opinion, but if the screen could switch off backlighting (but not color) in its pixels and basically turn into an unlit canvas that displays art when idle, that could be really cool.
If you want to replace TV with something, put static image there? TVs are usually bolted to wall, so even if TV's transparent, you gotta look on the wall?
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My wife and kids have educated me that skins in games are like dresses on Barbies and great fun. At great length my friends talk about motor cycle handholds, exhaust and other things I know nothing about. I liked the interior LED themes in recent Volvo’s. This all to say: de gustibus non disputandum. People will like what you (and I) abhor.
There are those that are good at inventing things. There are others that are good at figuring out the creative/practical way of using those things that deliver a product(s) that will have great success when combining several of these one off tools. There's a very valuable company with a fruit logo well known for this.
In fact, I'd imagine the original creator rarely makes as much money from the creation as those that figure out the practical ways of using it.
Also, some people just don't seem to have much imagination
I've seen these used to great effect in museum displays, such as the Ramses exhibit that recently toured worldwide. In that show, they used transparent screens in combination with other displays, lighting effects, etc. to create something more captivating for today's audiences than just a flat presentation or an item in a glass box.
If this means we can make television screens that aren’t a big black rectangle when switched off, but, say, look like a picture frame with a glass screen in front of it, I see a market.
Tiny ones could be useful in smart glasses, if we ever find good use for them.
I was taking a phone apart and accidentally peeled the back painted copper layer off my OLED screen, and got a phone where I could see the insides of the phone while using it, through the screen. Screen fully worked, touch and everything afterwards.
Micromirrors have now existed for 1-2 decades, it will be interesting to see per-pixel reflections, maybe reflecting a higher intensity light source to better simulate bloom and flares, and even for opacity control.
Could ChatGPT have invented this product? Demoed it? Produced it? No? Maybe ChatGPT with Atlas? Still not? Well that‘s how far we are from actual AI replacing work in a meaningful way.
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[ 309 ms ] story [ 1453 ms ] threadI like the use of the screensaver as it is something closer to having art on the walls, only it is updating. Even if you had a large piece of art under the screen so it was visible when the TV was off would still be better than some roll-down shade.
True trading a black rectangle for a beige rectangle wouldn't be much of an improvement, but a piece of artwork would be.
Screensavers are nice, but emissive displays always stand out against other, reflective, decor.
I recall there being a game and watch Mario game with a transparent LCD back in the day. Not many things use the tech.
Existing AR/VR displays are a hack around the human focal length, not a hack around solid displays.
I don't think we will ever have AR glasses with transparent displays. The human eye generally can't properly focus anything closer than 10cm.
Maybe we could have a face shield with a transparent display and this way we could hold it just far enough so it can be in focus.
The only way we can make "smart glasses" is with some expensive optics.
To make transparent microLEDs appear in your local Best Buy, something should be different about them vs OLEDs - so I don't trust these to make it out of CES either.
Sure, the signage business might not be high volume relative to consumer electronics. However, engineering entire new use-cases to target larger markets might not be worthwhile, if supply and pricing cannot meet market expectations due to yield constraints.
Beware that without the foil, the OLED is super fragile - the back touching anything will make rows/columns break, so if I were you I'd replace it with a sheet of clear plastic/glass for actual use.
[0]: https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Hand_terminal
My 2c: you see transparent displays in movies (e.g. Minority Report) because they're cool but also for the Hollywood-practical reason that it allows the audience to see the body language and facial expressions of the user/protagonist.
IRL, you don't want everyone seeing your screen and don't want the visual distraction of seeing other peoples' screens. If you want to share, it's trivial to screenshare to their device, project on a wall, put two thin monitors back-to-back, etc.
One could also more easily have arbitrary logical divisions of transparent screens. For instance one could set up a single transparent superultrawide screen to function as three separate displays if they wanted (useful for having multiple sets of virtual desktops) with transparency being used to create aesthetically pleasing divisions between each virtual screen (imagine each screen as a roundrect).
Car windows, regular windows, glasses, store fronts, fridge doors in stores.
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In fact, I'd imagine the original creator rarely makes as much money from the creation as those that figure out the practical ways of using it.
Also, some people just don't seem to have much imagination
Tiny ones could be useful in smart glasses, if we ever find good use for them.
I was taking a phone apart and accidentally peeled the back painted copper layer off my OLED screen, and got a phone where I could see the insides of the phone while using it, through the screen. Screen fully worked, touch and everything afterwards.