Source: AFP RelaxImagine having a transparent mobile phone that lets you write emails while keeping your eyes on the footpath or a laptop that you can gaze through to see the beautiful view out the window while you surf the web.
The vision is quickly becoming a reality as consumer electronics companies experiment with the futuristic-looking technology.
In March luxury mobile maker Mobiado announced it had teamed up with British luxury car brand Aston Martin to develop a concept phone called the CPT002. The futuristic device features a completely transparent solid sapphire crystal capacitive touchscreen and a smartphone operating system.
TDK is also working towards a world in which transparent display technology features heavily. In 2010 at the CEATEC conference in Japan, the company showed off gadgets with colored transparent screens and thin flexible film displays that play even when bent.
Future applications for the technologies include smartphones, MP3 players and wearable devices.
While companies such as Mobiado and TDK have given consumers a glimpse of the future with their concept devices, Samsung is taking the first leap into the mass-produced world of transparent LCD screens.
However, it's not the first time Samsung has evidenced transparent touch screen technology in use. In January 2010 Samsung unveiled the world's first transparent touch AMOLED display MP3 player -- the IceTouch (YP-H1) -- at the Consumer Electronics Show and also showed off a 14-inch see-through color-OLED-screend laptop prototype.
During CeBIT 2011 the company unveiled the world's first 46" LCD touchscreen prototype.
Sony too has been working on see-through display technology and recently released a transparent, monochrome-screened Xperia Pureness smartphone in Europe.
Samsung is the first company in the world to mass produce transparent LCD panels. Its first product is a 22-inch transparent LCD panel that comes in both black and white and color versions.
"Compared with the conventional LCD panels that use back light unit (BLU) and have 5% transparency, Samsung's transparent LCD panel boasts the world's best transparency rate of over 20% for the black-and-white type and over 15% for the color type," said Samsung in a March 31 announcement.
Not only does the technology look cool with its glass-like transparency, it's also more environmentally friendly.
It consumes around 90 percent less electricity than a conventional backlit LCD panel.
Because of these qualities, consumers may soon start to see transparent displays appearing in the market in a variety of different products.
Younghwan Park, a senior vice president of Samsung Electronics LCD Business, said, "Transparent displays will have a wide range of use in all industry areas as an efficient tool for delivering information and communication. With the world's first mass production of the transparent LCD panel, Samsung Electronics plans to lead the global transparent LCD market by developing various applications."
During the CEATEC conference, TDK said it planed to start mass production of its see-through flexible OLED display sometime in 2011.
Samsung plans to have its 22" see-through LCD screen on the market by July. No word on pricing.
