# Photovoltaic Glass...Real Technology? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 28, 2012, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332 "2012-12-28T01:29:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/21 "2012-12-28T18:22:14Z")
A clean, Windexed world where yours is the only car on the road, and everyone takes meetings or goes shopping, and everyone is young and attractive until, like Mom, they’re imprisoned, General Zod-like, in an iphone. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/22 "2012-12-28T22:20:27Z")
Burgundy and blue as school colors?! If that’s the future, kill me now!! ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/23 "2012-12-28T22:44:07Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > 20 years ago, TVs that you could control from your couch with something called a remote came out. It was the future. > 20 years from now, TVs that you control by walking up to and touching will come out. It will be the future. Remote controls are way older than 20 years. They were common in the 80s (I remember! I must be old!) and available before that. They used to have “clickers” and even wired remotes before the current crop of IR based remotes came out. (And now I control my TV with an XBMC app on my smart phone which uses wireless networking. The more things change, the more they stay the same.) Mr. Rogers Neighborhood goes back to the 60s and he used a remote to control his “Picture Picture” since the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/24 "2012-12-29T05:33:46Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Remote controls are way older than 20 years. They were common in the 80s (I remember! I must be old!) and available before that. They used to have “clickers” and even wired remotes before the current crop of IR based remotes came out. (And now I control my TV with an XBMC app on my smart phone which uses wireless networking. The more things change, the more they stay the same.) > > Mr. Rogers Neighborhood goes back to the 60s and he used a remote to control his “Picture Picture” since the beginning. But I remember TVs without remotes. That must have been in the early 90s. Maybe my TVs weren’t the latest. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/25 "2012-12-29T17:22:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Francis Vaughan** : > > Glass sheets that can be controlled to cut out light has been available for some time. So windows that can be turned black are easy, just very expensive. A pub near me installed toilet cubicle doors made of the stuff. $15,000 a door apparently. Some years back, Montana State University (where I was at the time) was installing a big multimedia… something… in the atrium of the physical science building. The original plan called for electronic glass like this in the windows, so the atrium could be darkened to better see the displays. Then the head of the physics department asked what the default state of the glass would be, in the event of a power outage. We ended up with ordinary fabric blinds on rollers, controlled by little pullchains on the side. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/26 "2012-12-29T18:51:34Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > But I remember TVs without remotes. That must have been in the early 90s. Maybe my TVs weren’t the latest. Yeah, in the 80s and 90s, we definitely had at least one TV in the house without remotes, but even in 84 or 85, when we got our first color TV (a Zenith model that looked like a piece of furniture, with its wood or faux-wood housing), it came with a remote control. It was not an infrared remote control, though, but an ultrasonic one. I could actually hear different high-pitches tones when I would hold the front end of it to my ears and press the buttons. Actually, [this is the remote](http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/273/7/d/1982_zenith_space_command_remote_by_wuvvzy93-d5gfgz1.jpg) I remember. Apparently, that’s from 1982, but those ultrasonic remotes go back more than ten years before that. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/27 "2012-12-29T21:40:04Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > 20 years ago, TVs that you could control from your couch with something called a remote came out. It was the future. > 20 years from now, TVs that you control by walking up to and touching will come out. It will be the future. I can control my (tablet)TV by touch now… this [winter](https://leapmotion.com/) - I might be able to control my computer without even requiring touching… In twenty years? My TV might be reading my mind to select shows I might like! ---
**Author:** ![Glazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e57/32.png) [@Glazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glazer)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/28 "2012-12-29T22:52:37Z")
The best use for transparent displays I can think of are augmented reality glasses. Where each lens displays a slightly different image so that you see a combined image at a distance. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/29 "2012-12-29T23:08:06Z")
> [@Glazer](#): > > The best use for transparent displays I can think of are augmented reality glasses. Where each lens displays a slightly different image so that you see a combined image at a distance. Same problem as HUD systems. You can’t just place the display in front of the eyes. There has to be an optical system so that the display appears in focus. This is usually done with a partially silvered mirror in front of the eyes, and other optics as needed. This gets you back to no useful case for the transparent display. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/30 "2012-12-30T01:05:23Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > I can control my (tablet)TV by touch now… this [winter](https://leapmotion.com/) - I might be able to control my computer without even requiring touching… In twenty years? My TV might be reading my mind to select shows I might like! I’ve ordered one and am on their developer list. It is something our company would love to use if it works as promised. ---
**Author:** ![flano1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f14d63/32.png) [@flano1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flano1)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/31 "2013-01-01T22:07:25Z")
Slowglass here it comes! ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332/32 "2013-01-01T23:23:49Z")
Never mind the glass - I want to know what magic technology allows this couple to wake up at 7:00am, both get dressed, cook breakfast, chat to his mother, get the kids organised and still have her in the car ready for work by 7:20am. Is Time Stasis Glass an option? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photovoltaic-glass-real-technology/645332.md?page=1)