The Laptop You Can See Through

Did you know that Air Force fighter pilots have face shields with heads-up displays projected on them? The effect is much like what game makers have been doing with first-person shooters – there’s a targeting reticle on the opponent and an ammo count at the corner. While the official point is to increase the amount of information a pilot has at hand, I just always thought that it was cool how real life has begun to imitate video games.

Why do I bring this up? Samsung created a laptop that uses a clear active matrix OLED screen (AMOLED). In layman’s terms, that’s a transparent screen. The display gives clear, sharp, bright images, but still allows one to see things through the screen. This laptop is different from those HUDs so loved by pilots in that the images aren’t projected; the screen is just transparent.

As of right now, I doubt that many people have a true practical application for this beyond just looking really cool. But hey, imagine one day having a glass table in your living room that doubles as a platform for a Microsoft Surface. Or maybe windows that double as interactive screens for your smart-house. Baby steps.

Via Tom’s Hardware.