Samsung has announced that it has begun mass-production of 22-inch transparent LCD displays, with two models – capable of either black & white or color images – in the first range to be offered. Rather than a traditional backlight, the 1680 x 1050 displays (which have 500:1 contrast ratios) use ambient light to illuminate them; Samsung has boosted transparency to 15-20% (over 5% in normal panels) so that sunlight is enough to make the picture visible.
Inputs include HDMI and USB, and Samsung reckons that power consumption is down by 90-percent over traditional displays as well. Users can look straight through them, like glass, and while it envisages advertising and “interactive communication” uses initially, there are also some very appealing transparent notebook prototypes floating around.
No word on pricing at this stage, nor when the displays – which only went into production this month – will actually go on sale.