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Transparent Displays Are Here, But They're Pretty Useless

An anonymous reader writes: Samsung has debuted the first commercial installation of its 55-inch 'mirror' displays at a salon in South Korea with a transparent OLED screen overlaid over a mirrored surface to allow interaction. The Samsung product rivals an equivalent TOLED from Planar, with both intended for high-end use in the retail display and exhibition space. However both manufacturers are struggling to find practical applications for the much-awaited technology. Transparent displays have been a staple of sci-fi films such as Minority Report for decades, but only, it seems, because they helped to open up scenes which would otherwise have been difficult to film. With the pending advent of AR-based visualization, the innovation of the clear monitor seems not only to have come too late, but also offer limited practical use, even if its current breathtaking prices were to descend to the consumer space.

4 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Very niche product. by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Until you're checking your ass flab for zits in the mirror and accidentally accept a call from your grandmother.

  2. few creative uses by nimbius · · Score: 4, Funny

    London: transform any day into a bright sunny summer day. downside: more pub brawls ensue after complicated arguments and tense standoffs arise from disagreements about blustery and sunny.
    Canada: images of alberta in february could be replaced by video of the leafs Borje Salming waxing your car which you tacitly know damn well has been under 7 feet of snow since october.
    America: imagine a mcdonalds window that makes the food appear to have been cooked from ingredients that came from actual vegetables and known animals. Or a convenient window treatment that could some day make Dick Cheney look like a real person instead of a villain from an episode of captain planet.

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  3. AR-based visualization by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Funny

    They should have linked "AR-based visualization"

    Not everyone knows what Armadillo-Rhinoceros-based visualization is. It's pretty much zoo-centric terminology.

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  4. Re:Very niche product. by JamesTRexx · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I told you to never call me on this wall! This is an unlisted wall!" - President Skroob

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