

Proof of Concept - See through OLED screen on a laptop - anderzole
http://gizmodo.com/5442217/the-laptop-to-end-all-laptops

======
sga
I can't stand the text of the story. Terrible. Likely supposed to be funny or
grandiose but I'd happily trade that crap for some actual meaningful content.
Perhaps start by telling us about the screen or the person who made it.

------
Raphael
Cool. Do you set a color to transparent, such as black or white? Could you use
the alpha channel to have uneven transparency?

------
axiom
This would be phenomenal for augmented reality applications.

~~~
tfh
It would be a little tricky though to track the eyes/head of the viewer to
appropriately display the AR layer.

~~~
notauser
There's already cheap technology to do this using a Wii remote camera attached
to the screen and a pair of IR LEDS mounted on your glasses.

Those low resolution IR cameras must have been produced in such huge
quantities I bet they are pretty cheap now. You can buy a Wii-mote for $50
retail and that includes lots of expensive hardware you don't need such as a
bluetooth transceiver and a pair of accelerometers.

~~~
slyn
Specifically: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw>

Check out his entire youtube channel, it is full of interesting
software/hardware hacks.

------
ericb
If made transparent enough, and with the right finish, putting e-ink
underneath in a tablet might make for the easy-on-the-eyes reading experience
of e-ink with the full capabilities of a standard screen.

~~~
gjm11
You'd probably have parallax trouble if you tried to use both displays
concurrently. And unfortunately I suspect "transparent enough" would be quite
difficult.

------
pyre
The real problem is making sure that the background to the screen doesn't
obscure what you're seeing on the screen. I'm sure many can attest to having
'transparent' terminals that are screwed up because of a background that
clashes in a bad way or the terminal ending up on top of a browser window that
has a clashing color scheme making the content illegible.

For this to really be feasible for everyday tech, it would need to be married
with something to detect these clashes and adjust opacity/colorschemes
appropriately. Similar (in concept) to those eye glasses that darken/lighten
with the amount of ambient/direct light (maybe just sunlight, I never had an
actual pair of those glasses) that you encounter.

Update: This also says nothing of how this tech will react to direct sunlight.
In direct sunlight, how will something like this compare to a tech like full
color e-Ink (or even just black/white e-Ink)?

~~~
senko
Low tech solution to this would be to just darken the background. A lot of
people use this in their semi-transparent terminals and it seems to work for
them (addmitedly not ideal).

I'd be more worried about the front imagery obscuring what's in the
background, in case people start putting this on car windshields or sunglasses
(i'm speculating but hey, we're talking about future anyways).

~~~
pyre
The problem being that sometimes even semi-transparent terminal windows can be
obscured if the background interferes with the text colors and/or terminal
background. This might not be a problem if you put an outline around the
characters though (i.e. like most subtitle renderers on media players do --
white text with a black outline so that you can still read the subtitle even
when the actual video background is white/really bright).

------
sketerpot
I've wanted this ever since I watched Cowboy Bebop. Not sure how usable it'll
be, but it's damn cool. Maybe it'll be used mostly for applications where
coolness is the main thing, like advertising and art.

------
popschedule
The really impressive thing about this technology is it's potential in every
day 'windows' that we see every day. Example, heads up displays in car windows
so that passengers can see information about their surrounding landscapes.
That's just one idea but I'm sure you guys can think of more.

~~~
nhebb
I was thinking of store window displays.

~~~
tezza
If the price is reasonable.

It's much cheaper currently to project onto a mesh film for close to the same
effect.

------
extension
Pfft, ancient technology:
<http://extension.ws/photos/see_thru_laptop_1200.jpg>

------
brianobush
Would love to know what applications are aside from the obvious:(1) aug
reality, (2) huds, ...

~~~
stilist
Tracking spaceships? <http://i.imgur.com/H55EO.jpg>

------
figital
I'd like this embedded in my eye glasses. I'd also like a pony.

------
RyanMcGreal
Unfortunately IE12 still won't support transparency.

------
houseabsolute
More of a "disproof of concept" . . .

