Samsung is working on a transparent phone and you might be thinking we have heard this news somewhere before well that's because they started registering patents for it, Seven years ago they registered more patents in 2018, and then literally a couple of weeks ago all of this points towards one thing, that we do know that behind the walls of Samsung HQ, this is being worked on now there's someone who's grown up watching a lot of Sci-Fi where it's practically a stereotype of the future to have transparent displays and transparent phones.
It is crazy that, this isn't fiction anymore, literally last month Xiaomi announced a transparent TV, you can go into the store, demo it, you could take one home if you like it.
It is a real product, a device that can display a vibrant OLED picture, and then when it's off, it just disappears into a razor-thin sheet of glass. A transparent TV is not a smart idea, as a living room TV system is probably one of the top five worst use of transparent display because you generally set a TV in one spot and then never really move it, you're not gonna notice the transparency unless you get up and walk around it, and because it's probably sitting in your living room, then chances are it's all going to do is remind you, what the back of your wall looks like and potentially, it would even remind you that, how messed up the cables you had behind your screen, plus the recommended usage scenario for transparent TVs right now, is making sure that the wall behind it is dark, but think about that for a second, if the wall behind your TV is dark, it might not be a transparent tv.
Now it actually would make sense if it was like a fitted panel or something like that which people could install in a place where they were going to have glass anyways, but it just so happens that glass is also their TV.
But it just so happens that glass is also their tv but anyways yeah I'm not hugely sold on that idea and to be really fair in all of these sci-fi movies as prevalent as these see-through displays and see-through phones is there's never really an explanation as to why I feel like a lot of people are convinced that this is the future but often just because well it's futuristic but that in itself is just a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Possibly the idea would basically be to have a transparent display and then all your transparent components sitting directly behind it and then all the things that you couldn't make transparent shove them into the bezels and I get that this sounds like science fiction but we are getting there transparent circuit boards are a thing transparent cables are a thing even transparent batteries are starting to become a thing so yes while a fully transparent phone is going to take time, I'm just saying that I think it's possible so, why would you want one.
Now there is already the very obvious perk of transparent is cool and if you gave me a couple of hours i could probably name you 100 products that are founded on this premise alone but to be fair i think with transparent phones there is more to it than that there is a minor safety benefit people walk around the street staring at their phones you could argue that if your phone is transparent you at least have some awareness as to what's happening around you but also if we just take a closer look at the patents samsung's been filing some of them detail a display that can because it's transparent be used on both the front and the back, it might mean that you could use your phone normally without obstructing your view with a finger it might mean you could effectively pinch objects you'd almost have another dimension when interacting with digital content this device right here for example was something created by japanese mobile operator docomo where you could for example use one hand on the back to hold a rubik's cube still and another to rotate parts of it like you would in real life and just bear in mind that that demo was from 2012.
There is the obvious problem with the transparent device that whatever's happening right behind you might interfere with what you're trying to see but we already know that this is a solvable problem because glass can tint itself transparent display glass can adjust its transparency on the fly you've seen that oneplus concept one phone right it actually employed this exact technique darkening its glass to make its cameras disappear from view but all this stuff is fairly minor i think the big selling point of a transparent phone is augmented reality see even now we can play games like pokemon go with these virtual creatures running around in our real world we can scan text in a foreign language and convert it to our own we can measure the distance of real-world objects but in the current way that this is done there's a disconnect between you and the real world that you're interacting with what you're actually seeing is not really what's in front of you it's just a representation of what's in front of you shown on a screen which in itself is just information displayed by the camera of your phone it doesn't feel real it doesn't feel like your reality is actually getting augmented but with a transparent phone you can bypass all of that imagine literally just holding up this digital pane of glass and seeing those objects alive right in front of you it would be the next level of immersion all that said i don't think transparent phones are gonna become a thing see two of the biggest most persistent trends in technology other, First, people want to be as connected as possible always online always just one interaction away from other people and Secondly at the same time more than ever people want immersion a way to lose themselves in digital worlds that feel as real as possible that's why people love Virtual Reality so much but where do these two things lead us because then they almost kind of seem like contradictions like how can you be always connected and always interacting with other people if at the same time you're sunk into a digital experience well i would argue that it all leads us to a mixed reality a world where digital becomes fused with the physical you are completely immersed but at the same time so is everyone else so you're always connected and there are huge benefits to this wouldn't need road signs to know where you're driving you wouldn't need great weather to be able to look out the window and see a bright sunny day you'll be able to learn everything you need about an item in a shop before you actually pay for it and most importantly pokemon go could actually be what it was in the initial trailer with people wandering around their real world catching seemingly real pokemon that's the dream and i do get that at the same time this sounds just as terrifying as it is exciting.
What i think is that by the time we see this in real products that you can actually go out and buy we'll be ready for it and people will want it so with all that in mind yes a transparent smartphone would be a step above a normal phone in immersing you into this digital world but there's a competing product that would be two steps above augmented reality glasses if the real world is merging with the virtual then it makes complete sense for you to be able to access this through something you can wear as opposed to something you have to hold instead of having to install a transparent display in my car 15 in my house and then 100 in my shop it makes sense to just have one transparent display that can do everything and it makes sense for that display to not be on a smartphone but to be on your face plus by the time a transparent phone is completely viable i think we'll already be on our third generation of ar glasses so i don't think they'll even be given enough time to become a thing i suppose the next step above glasses would be something implanted inside of you so that you could still interact with the digital world that is definitely a different video.
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