Posted on 06/22/2010 by Dave Norton. (Back to News)
Samsung shows off transparent LCD Technology at InfoComm 2010
Editors Note: While the video shown above is from SID 2010, the exact demonstration was also made at InfoComm 2010.
At the recent Society of Information Display Show near Seattle the folks at Samsung Semi Conductor Inc. (SSI for short) revealed their latest designs in OLED displays and gave the display world some confidence that large OLED panels are on the horizon. For the display technology “geeks” out there you know that OLED comes in numerous types and one version is even transparent. Being one of those “geeks”, when we heard that they would show a transparent LCD I naturally thought they were talking about OLED since conventional wisdom not to mention our experience tells us that commercially available LCD displays do not come in a transparent configuration. In this case, I am happy to say that conventional wisdom was wrong and our paradigm was about to be expanded.
We could not attend SID this year and read with anxious anticipation the all too short press release on the new transparent LCD breakthrough. When we arrived at InfoComm we headed directly to the SSI meeting rooms upstairs to see if someone had simply misstated transparent LCD instead of OLED. After all, we were armed with conventional wisdom. We've been promised transparent screens in the past using new generation OLEDs but if true, this would be the first time a manufacturer had demonstrated such a large display using the cheaper to manufacture LCD technology. Having been in the display industry for the better part of 30 years I have heard promises and seen demonstrations that were less than believable and less than impressive. I am happy to report that this turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. So exactly what is it and what did we see?
First of all, the demonstration involved a “new” version of Samsung’s LCD (not OLED) technologies. We walked into a demo room and were confronted with a large black box with a transparent cover over a display of wine bottles on a silken table cloth with one bottle in a wine holder and groups of red and white grapes on the right hand side. I want to emphasize that these were real objects and not digitally displayed images. At the flick of the remote control, the right half of the screen showed a very high contrast and color saturated picture with a header entitled “leading grape varieties” and underneath framed pictures of red and white grapes. Underneath the pictures were the grape varieties in each category. The affect was just stunning. The juxtaposing of real objects and the high resolution and high contrast digital images was impressive to say the least. The next part of the demo involved going up to the screen and simply touching the various areas and new information and pictures were immediately revealed. In short, the new transparent LCD works perfectly with interactive touch screen capabilities.
After the impact of what we had seen began to subside a little, being display “geeks”, we had to ask a few questions. The smiling SSI folks volunteered that the technology was using current LCD manufacturing equipment but in a “new way” and was ready for production as we spoke and will be available by the fall of this year. The display uses the ambient light in the area to illuminate the display, but if it’s too dark the display will automatically switch its light source over to use LEDs cleverly hidden and located around the border of the LCD. If the entire display is turned off it can be left in a “clear” mode or in a dark grey LCD offstage. Off course we left wanting more and perhaps that is the secret to a great demonstration.
The effect is stunning. Photo-realistic images appear to hover in mid-air, but without obscuring the products in the background. You still are able to see through the digitally displayed images. The entire display, both real products and digital images, simply begs to be touched and when you do it opens up a new dimension of interactivity between real world and illusion. It is more than a static display and more than a digital display and the interactivity completes the experience. This cool technology is really all about the visual and tactile experience combined. It could be used for store displays and advertising, education and healthcare application not to mention entertainment and even video games. To this reporter it is a natural evolution of digital signage. Get the adrenaline flowing because shortly you will have another creative tool in your bag of goodies to show just how creative you can be.