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Samsung's New TVs Are Almost Invisible (qz.com)
Mike Murphy reports via Quartz of Samsung's new top-of-the-line televisions announced at an event in New York today: Samsung's new QLED line of 4K TVs features a technology the company is calling "Ambient Mode." Before you mount the TV, you'll snap a picture of the wall it's going to hang on -- it doesn't matter if it's brick, wood, patterned wallpaper, or just a white wall -- and then after it's up, you can set that picture as the TV's background. The result is something that looks like a floating black rectangle mounted on a wall. Samsung even includes a digital version of the shadow this black rectangle would cast on the wall, as if there really wasn't a large LED panel sitting in the middle of the thin metal strips. There are five QLED models, with minor tweaks between them, ranging in size from 49 inches, up to an absolutely massive 88 inches. The televisions have a built-in timer so that the ambient setting will turn off after a while, in order to spare your electricity bill. Viewing the televisions before Samsung's event, the ambient really did appear to blend them into the walls at first blush. One, against a fake brick wall, was indistinguishable from what was behind it until you really got close up to the screen. The distinction on another, attempting to mimic a painted off-white wall, was a little more obvious. But that's not really the point -- the mode is just intended to give the illusion of invisibility between watching TV, and when you want to show off your new television to a visitor. Pricing isn't available but you can expect them to range from a few thousands dollars all the way up to $20,000 for the largest, sharpest models. Samsung also announced that it's partnering with The Weather Channel, The New York Times, and others to overlay content on the ambient TVs. They will also be able to control any smart device that can control to Samsung's SmartThings system, like Amazon Echoes, Ring doorbells, and Philips Hue Lights. Bixby is baked into the remote to help you search for content and cater to commands.
You're using energy 24/7 making your TeeVee appear invisible?
Next up will be the Samsung Edge TV. It's just like the current TV, only the screen extends and curves a bit at the edges, so there is no black rectangle frame at the end of the screen. Sure, it's even more pointless than the edge on their phones, but when they're charging a premium for anything that makes them cooler than a TCL or Vizio TV, there's nothing they won't try.
Now if they had a passive color E-Ink display or the like, that would be really cool. Then you don't have to feel guilty about the power when leaving the screen on to have it blend in with the wall (or appear to be a painting, or whatever). Of course, good luck getting such a display to handle motion and extreme contrast that makes for a quality television. And good luck getting such a display at anything resembling HDTV resolutions, let alone 4K.
How do you watch an invisible TV?
The name is meant to imply that it's comparable to OLED technology, but the reality is that it's just regular old LED technology. It IS NOT anywhere nearly as good as real OLED. And only LG makes *real* OLEDs, not Samsung.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
"They will also be able to control any smart device that can control to Samsung's SmartThings system, like Amazon Echoes, Ring doorbells, and Philips Hue Lights. Bixby is baked into the remote to help you search for content and cater to commands."
Nope. Not gonna use a TV connected to the Internet. That's dumb.
I don't respond to AC's.
Oh, it's invisible to most of the sheep out there.
Of course, I did mount it on a black wall...
#DeleteChrome
Subject says it all.
Wait for it........Serve you stuff that makes the whole thing pointless. So now you can be served those fine advertisements on a beautiful background that looks like your wall. Wowsers, what a brave new world full of wonder and promise.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Sure. Set the background as a photo of the wall behind your TV. Then load a screen saver that shows cockroaches running around the screen.
"How do you like my new invisible TV? All of the shows on it say what a fantastic job I'm doing."
"It's tremendous, Mr President. Really spectacular. Now, can we get back to the national security briefing?"
You are welcome on my lawn.
In a conference room at my office is an entire cork board wall with a projector screen in the middle. Someone, naturally, took a picture of the cork board, made it the room PC's wallpaper, and I guess set a Group Policy prohibiting the wallpaper from being changed. They INSIST on whimsy. I thought inspirational photos like something from Southeast Alaska would be better... sorry, but no.
Beware of the Leopard.
I'll just paint my wall black and save $1000s!
you know whats more so stupid? you can do this same thing with any tv you can put a picture on.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Here is something for you hackers out there to try.
The simple version: In a room with no exterior windows, set a large TV/monitor into a wall. Surround it by a window frame. Display the view you'd expect to see from your building, if there actually was a window there.
Elaboration 0: Use a camera to feed a live view of outside to the 'window'.
Elaboration 1: Have weird things happen occasionally in the view: UFO, Godzilla attack, albatross flying into the "window", tsunami, pyroclastic flow, spiderman.
Elaboration 2: Have some cameras inside the room and some AI to identify and track human heads. By whatever method, pick one head as the victim. Feed the location of that head to the display software, so it will display the view with the correct parallax for that viewpoint.
Once you add the parallax, I think this could be very convincing to any unsuspecting viewer.
I disclaim any responsibility for the effects this could have on the viewer, or consequences that the viewer or others might visit upon the trickster. Consult your own ethics and lawyers and (if relevant) your institution's ethics review board.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
>"Viewing the televisions before Samsung's event, the ambient really did appear to blend them into the walls at first blush."
Except that Samsung and apparently most of the other manufacturers are in love with stupid, GLOSSY screens. So no, it will not be invisible, it will reflect every stray light and everything else, even when it is on. (Can you tell I am a fan of now nearly unobtainable MATT displays?)
I can guess their "sample" setup was engineered VERY carefully to try and hide the actual reality of reflections that would be present in any real-world use.
And which you could do on any display device if you could be bothered to.
Sure it makes a nice meme image from a certain angle if you spent the time to photoshop it just right. Otherwise it looks like someone took a photo of the wall and then showed it on the TV.
And if it was REALLY convincing, even from an amateur taking the picture themselves, I'd be amazed. Most people have plain walls, surely, nowadays? You may as well just put a flat background of the right colour on it.