Oftentimes, technology seems to follow sci-fi. I’ve often wondered, if engineers watch these shows, then think to themselves: “Wow! That looks cool! We should totally try that!”
By “See through” technology, I’m talking about a computer monitor that looks like a pane of glass. Or a smart phone that’s completely see through. Items you may have seen on various sci fi shows.
I ask, because this YT video really blew my damn mind: Toyota: Window to the world.
Regardless whether we can (would require transparent batteries, etc, or very small ones built into the frame), do we really want to?
Transparent VDUs look cool in movies and they offer the filmmaker the convenience of showing the audience what’s being displayed on the screen, at the same time as the actor’s face reacting and emoting.
In terms of practical utility though, the devices would not be very usable. When you read printed text on a sheet of paper, why would you need to see through it and look at items on the floor or wall beyond?
In a very limited sense, transparent displays could work in AR contexts where the display labels or annotates real-world objects behind. Apart from that, transparent screens would be a step down in terms of readability.
Ninjaed, but yes, the technology is entirely possible right now (it is just a naked LCD without a backlight, I used to have a small digital clock from Radio Shack like that) and is nothing that anybody would ever want to use.
That never got in the way of development of, say, texting.
A bit of a extension of what you are asking, but there is work on aircraft that can make the plane quasi-invisable and ‘see through’
Better still, transparent OLED - as the actual pixels emit light. - It’s possible right now and there are a bunch of ‘cool’ applications for it, but not many that are useful on personal displays:
http://www.planar.com/innovations/transparent-oled/
My phone has an option called “on the go mode” where it turns on the rear camera and sets the live feed as the phone’s wallpaper. It’s supposed to be so you don’t crash into things while texting but it kinda makes the phone go transparent. Very cool effect anyway.
I know this isn’t quite what the OP had in mind, but here is what I think is the best use of “see-through” technology: Samsung made its trucks “transparent” in Argentina to improve road safety.
You have to see LG’s transparent TV from the future
I could see a few applications where it might be interesting.
Tech journalist Robert Scoble insists that Apple plans to make the a transparent iPhone in the near future - basically a piece of glass with an opaque section at the bottom where all the circuitry and battery would reside. It seems like the sort of moronic thing that Apple would do.