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Samsung Develops a Transparent OLED Laptop Screen
Dyne09 writes "The Design blog has posted an entry on Samsung's new laptop with a transparent OLED screen. The photos show a dark-tinted and dimly-lit screen that is fully see-through. While the utility of a see-through laptop probably isn't that high for the average user, several medical and industrial industries could greatly augment design work or frame 3-D models over real life in real-time."
However, sticking it on a laptop is.
I had two ideas come to mind on ways to use this technology (laptop screens don't really seem like a killer feature).
- Glasses. It would be great to get a screen on the lenses of my sunglasses, most of the time they'd be clear like normal, but info could pop up throughout the day as needed. Or I could sit back and watch a video, and just turn it off if I needed to see something.
- 3D Displays. If one would take many layers of this together, it would be possible to create a 3D display a couple inches deep that would be able to be viewed without any need for glasses. It would be quite limited to the amount of depth available, but even a small amount could be revolutionary.
there certainly is some geek coolness in having a transparent display on a laptop, although I question the usefulness of it; particularly when one is playing back pr0n on said laptop.
While the utility of a see-through laptop probably isn't that high for the average user, several medical and industrial industries could greatly augment design work or frame 3-D models over real life in real-time."
How about a heads-up-display for cars-- you know so I'm not distracted while driving and playing Grand Theft Auto?
Plus this technology is essential if you want to have Minority Report-like hand-waving technology/aerobics, so people can watch you through the screen as you, as in the movie, copy files onto a disk-like thing and carry 10 feet across the room to another computer. How futuristic!
Like meseums, trade shows etc etc, it would really pull people arround them despite only being able to read properly from the one side. Countless movies and TV shows have transparent screens in high tech work places, it's all good as long as it's not too bad on the eyes if it's to be worked with a lot, or if any private data ever needs to be shown it's useless.
How about using this on a hybrid laptop/tablet? Instead of having an mechanical swivel for the screen that can break, just have a transparent screen like this. Open it up and it's a laptop. Shut the laptop and the screen mirrors so it's a tablet now. This is assuming you could get the outside (or back of) the screen to have touch capabilities.
-John
I can't see much use for an overlay unless there is a fixed viewpoint or the display is only used for information that does not need to be synced with what is behind it. Move your head a few centimeters and it'd throw it all askew.
The other problem I see with this, as someone mentioned glasses is the focal distance. The heads up displays and wearable computers, etc, that I've seen used mirrors and optics to achieve a further distance than trying to focus on the lens of your glasses.
Bah!
Would've been useful back when overhead slide projectors were ubiqutous and video projectors expensive and rare.
screen watches you
-1 Cliche
Table-ized A.I.
... Is make it a touch screen and shrink the components to a "hand size" grip along the side.
Or
Like a few others suggested; Stick it in a high end luxuary car's windscreen, no need for the driver to move his eyes from the road to see readouts.
(Obligitory M$ joke follows!) Just don't let the car windscreen run windows or the phrase "Blue screen of death" might take on a more perminent meaning.... ^_^
Laters Sol "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
It's translucent. It if were transparent then it would be clear, instead it's like a dark tinted piece of glass which isn't that easy to see through if you ask me.
Looks like screens in Avatar!
{{.sig}}
Car windows, particularly the windshield.
Instead of having LED below the e-ink, put it on top of the e-ink. With no current applied to either, you see the e-ink. When you need to use the faster more colorful tech, make the e-ink whitish and turn on the OLED.
Greasy smudges on *both* sides of the screen.
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I would actually like to see something like this overlaying the e-ink screen on an e-reader. The LCD would make taking notes, browsing the web, and possibly even watching videos possible for short periods, and when not in use, the e-ink screen would still save on battery life.
Samsung's new laptop with a transparent OLED screen
And there was much feline rejoicing.
However, on the issue of privacy, can people on the other side of the screen also see what you have displayed?
Then again, could it be also be used as a tablet without having to flip the screen?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
None of the pictures or videos showed the screen displaying anything that was black. Guess we give that up and replace it with "40% transparent gray"
This could change the game for small tablets; you could hold the tablet on either side and use your fingers behind the screen to manipulate images without obstructing your view of them.
I've seen variations of such a solution which artificially create a 'finger' effect through graphics with the touch pad on the back of the device, but this would be the real thing.
Interesting.
Also. . .
People are obviously worried about the privacy factor of see-through computer screens, but I could see this being considered a huge plus in the evil corporate work environment; the drones would only be allowed to use laptops where the backside is a window to the front. A lot less Facebook and Farmville would eat into company time that way. Or at least, this may be how the pointy-haired dictator might think when placing bulk-orders for laptops.
-FL
I wouldn't mind having my vehicle gauges and GPS moved onto my windshield. Additionally, it would be nice to play movies on it too (in park of course) since my car has a reasonable surround sound system and soundproofing.
If you combine this with Wii-type motion control, I think you have the photo/video system from Minority Report.
From the article:
"Samsung presents world's first and largest transparent OLED laptop at CES"
If it's the world's first, it's just as much the world's largest as the world's smallest transparent OLED laptop, as well as the brightest and most-dim, the sharpest and most-blurry, etc...
This supports my theory that LCD screen manufacturers are conspiring not to produce one without a bezel on (at least) one side, which would dramatically reduce the price they can get for larger screens.
Dont buy another LCD until they produce a bezel-free one !
I heard you like windows so I made a window that you can display windows with while running windows, so you can have windows in your window.
zosxavius photography
If this is low power enough, you could theoretically use this for the tinting in vehicle windows/windshields or even homes; make it a graduated but adjustable auto-tint that works on how much and/or what wavelengths of light sensors detect entering the cabin or room. The best part is, when you leave your car in the sun, instead of having to struggle with a clumsy sun screen that only protects one window, one button press blocks all the windows, keeping the cabin relatively cool by the time you return.
Odi profanum vulgus et arceo
you are playing Left 4 Dead and suddenly you see your mother in law appear among the zombies.
the real problem I have with e-ink is that it is monochrome. i'd rather them adapt the technology to color somehow and make it cost effective. i understand that a lot of books are just simple text, but the ability to have color and layout would add a great deal to e-books. what is so wrong with just using a pdf as an e-book format anyways? (asides from the lack of drm) I mean pdf was designed to be a replacement for postscript anyways. Seems perfect to me for e-books asides from adobe's tight grip on the format.
A great application would be for medical ultra-sound visualisation. The latest scanners can generate 3D surfaces which can be viewed on a monitor. There was some experimentation with combining LCD screens with mirrors so that a cross-section view from the sensor could be superimposed on top of the location of the actual sensor.
Imagine if a doctor could slide this screen around a patient and motion sensors could pick up the location of the screen and transform the data from a MRI/CAT scan into a matching projection, all in real-time.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Heads-up display, much like the system used in Cadillacs.
http://cars.about.com/od/cadillac/ig/2008-Cadillac-STS-gallery/2008-Cadillac-STS-HUD.htm
viewing a map with turn by turn superimposed over the windshield would be killer app
Porn.
There doesn't seem to be a great deal of control over the actual transparency. It seems that fully white pixels are as opaque as can be whilst fully black are transparent.
I can't really see a point in the transparency, but maybe that's just a result of my underactive imagination. Still, if I were designing something to utilise a transparent display, I'd want to hardware and software to support varying transparency using an alpha channel. RGBA really just makes sense to me as something you'd use on a transparent display.
There's no OS support for such a thing, of course, but apps and drivers could be written to take advantage until OS support were available.
Augmented reality glasses!
Mark my words! :)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
IBM ThinkPad 755CV had a transparent LCD display (VGA resolution) around 1995. It could be detached from the laptop, and placed on an overhead projector, for making PowerlessPointless-style presentations. This was in the days before projectors were common.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Just combine it with a naked scanner. No more invasive body checks, just walk by that smiling security officer behind a computer screen. Oh wait. It'd better be one-way.
Back when overhead projectors were the dominant method of displaying information before a large audience (y'know the ones you put clear sheets of plastic on and wrote with a marker), before powerpoint and before projectors that connected to your VGA port. IBM came out with the Thinkpad 755CV in which you could remove the backcover of the screen and then place the screen over the light on your overhead projector.
Back in 1995...
You watch All My Children!?
Dude...
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
1 a (1) : having the property of transmitting light without appreciable scattering so that bodies lying beyond are seen clearly
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
These things have been out for years. Check out all the pictures people have taken of their laptops with transparent displays! Most are 100% transparency as well.
Maybe a laptop with this screen could operate as a tablet when the lid is closed.
This is a great example of information wanting to be free, you guys have all these great ideas about the applications of the technology and have no qualms spreading them. Now, someone just has to take your idea, copyright it, and then patent it, and then it's no longer free. Beautiful world we live in, eh?
Plus it completely defeats the purpose of the transparency: the optics will make you extremely short sighted so you would not be able to see anything further away.
They'll wind up using this for advertising. Instead of regular "dumb" windows in stores they will all be "smart windows" with changeable ads, visible from both sides of the glass.
I tried a beta version of this display with compiz and my windows set to transparent, and I almost blew my mind. Almost.
Sean
One good use that could result from a technology like this would be screen-embedded cameras for video conferencing.
Anyone who has ever VC-ed with someone before knows that the experience is severely lacking for one important reason: eye contact. Even with a modern built-in camera just a half inch above the screen, it is obvious that the person you are talking to you is looking at their screen and not you. In my opinion, this is show stopper, and it really makes the experience no better than a phone conversation, if not worse.
A camera that was embedded in the center of a screen, with the other person's video stream centered on top of it, would fix this problem once and for all. No bulky teleprompter-like screen attachment necessary.
This would be awesome for augmented reality in a hand held device. If you could make it so you could look through it to your surroundings, and overlay useful information. The tricky part would be tracking where the user's eyes were relative to the device so you could properly position the overlay.
Yes I am talking about beer mugs. Make her look pretty even before finishing your first drink...
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
In theory one could predistort the image on the screen in such a way as to appear correct when focusing further away, right?
Wrong. Nice try but light rays have a direction as well which will be lacking if you simply reproduce an image on an OLED screen and so they will not be bend in the same way by a lens. If you have a screen which can control both the direction and intensity of light from each pixel then you could make a very nice 3D display.
VEGETA! What does the laptop say about his power level??
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