How long before transparent displays (for Smartwatches)

[rituraj]

A transparent display that shows the mechanical watch underneath and activates whenever a notification comes up or when one uses the display to see something would be perfect in my opinion.

And with AMOLED, it can even be a portion of the display, like a notification bar or strip, and the full display when one expands the notification.

How far are we from such a technology? I read about it somewhere that IGZO panels can be made transparent. Can't remember where. It wasn't an article, but a comment or post in some forum or something. It may not be totaly crystal clear due to the circuitry required (or may be) but would be nice for battery saving.

 

[Rdmkr]

isn't an LCD panel already a transparent membrane with a backlight behind it? to separate the two from eachother and put moving parts in between probably makes the whole rather delicate, though.

 

[rituraj]

But you need to have a backlight behind that, or a white layer to disperse the backlight if it is edge-lit to make it a uniform white source of light. If the layer or the LEDs can be made transparent when they are not producing light, that will be a truely transparent display.
Just found this
http://www.oled-info.com/transparent-oleds

Looks like they do exist. But the thing is if any manufacturer is trying to use them in a smart watch or phone. I can't see the usefulness of a transparent phone display though.

 

[podspi]

Now THIS would be awesome. I don't know if we're at the point where we could affordably manufacture something like that, though.

 

[Red Storm]

I don't think I would want a transparent display on my smartwatch, smartphone, or tablet.

 

[rituraj]

I don't think I would want a transparent display on my smartwatch, smartphone, or tablet.

But if you do wear a watch, you would like to see the hands, right? With my patented technology, you can have that :biggrin:. I think Google owes me some money.

 

[Red Storm]

But if you do wear a watch, you would like to see the hands, right? With my patented technology, you can have that :biggrin:. I think Google owes me some money.

Well there wouldn't be any hands seeing as it's a smartwatch and not a regular watch.

 

[rituraj]

Well there wouldn't be any hands seeing as it's a smartwatch and not a regular watch.

I doubt you got it correctly. The hands will be there just like a regular watch. The smart watch, until summoned, will remain in disguise of a dumb watch. But as soon as you get a message "Gotham needs you", there will be a semi-transparent bat appearing on the top portion of your screen and the message itself. And then when you touch the notification, the whole screen will activate like a regular smart (read "BAT") watch and provide you with options like Call the batmobile, call robin, reply with "gotham, you can **** my ****", or ignore and watch TV etc. Isn't that cool?

I think I should get a girlfriend..

 

[WelshBloke]

I doubt you got it correctly. The hands will be there just like a regular watch. The smart watch, until summoned, will remain in disguise of a dumb watch. But as soon as you get a message "Gotham needs you", there will be a semi-transparent bat appearing on the top portion of your screen and the message itself. And then when you touch the notification, the whole screen will activate like a regular smart (read "BAT") watch and provide you with options like Call the batmobile, call robin, reply with "gotham, you can **** my ****", or ignore and watch TV etc. Isn't that cool?

I think I should get a girlfriend..

Thats going to be a chunky watch if it has to hold the stuff to make a regular watch work and a smartwatch work, it would look cool though.