Innovation is one way to get ahead and Samsung is hoping its new 22-inch LCD panel
will get the interest of many. So what’s new from the South Korean
company? It’s the new Transparent Smart Window, which, as the name
suggests, is transparent and allows the user to get a glance of the view
at the back of the screen.
The
LCD panel functions just like your regular computer display, but the
difference in Samsung’s latest creation is that you get an outside view
too aside from your screen. Fancy checking out your favourite websites
while getting a glimpse of what’s going on in the living room, it’s
possible with the Transparent Smart Window.
Technically speaking,
the transparency of the new LCDs are around 15%-20%, way above the
transparency of current LCDs at only 5%. While practical usage of the new LCD
panel is still up in the air, the innovation unveiled at CES 2012
certainly turned heads and it’s only a matter of time before it goes
mainstream.
Samsung had plenty of smart TVs that it hoped people would stare eagerly at last week at CES 2012,
but it was a display you can gaze right through that was arguably the
most exciting. Samsung’s Transparent Smart Window, the 22-inch LCD panel
can not only show you everything your regular computer display does,
but is also clear so that you can look through at what’s outside your
home.
Samsung actually showed off the transparent display technology back in March 2011,
suggesting at the time that it could be used for advertising.
Unfortunately that application proved too mundane to catch the public’s
attention in quite the way Samsung hoped for, hence the return of the
tech last week and the far more exciting prospect of your double-glazing
telling you your latest Tweets, Facebook friend requests and Google+
Hangouts.
As well as giving internet updates and letting you work on your
latest report for work while simultaneously keeping an eye on the kids
in the garden, the smart window can create its own virtual privacy
shades. Although during the day, it’s ambient light that works as the
backlight, two traditional edge-lighting sources are also fitted for
nighttime use.
Tech-wise, the 22-inch panel runs at 1680 x 1050 resolution and has a
500:1 contrast ratio. Regular LCDs are only 5-percent transparent,
whereas Samsung’s new panels increase that to 15-20-percent.
Unfortunately there’s still no word on pricing or domestic availability.
