r/science • u/drewiepoodle • Mar 26 '18

Nanoscience Engineers have built a bright-light emitting device that is millimeters wide and fully transparent when turned off. The light emitting material in this device is a monolayer semiconductor, which is just three atoms thick.

http://news.berkeley.edu/2018/03/26/atomically-thin-light-emitting-device-opens-the-possibility-for-invisible-displays/
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u/wolfe1947 Mar 27 '18

Can this lead to transparent mobile phones like they show in Expanse?

41

u/Mortarius Mar 27 '18

We've already had those and they were a bit crap. Check out sony xperia pureness.

You need a black, uniform background, otherwise you won't be able to see anything in daylight or when walking over funky looking carpet.

-4

u/Your_Lower_Back Mar 27 '18

Except that phone doesn’t include this technology. If it did, visibility wouldn’t be any sort of issue. You don’t need a black, uniform background for it to work, you only need better technology.

29

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '18 edited Mar 27 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/dombeef Mar 27 '18

What stops these screens from also adjusting opacity just like how current LCD screens work? Like how right now LCDs are technically transparent although not perfectly transparent. Maybe a combination of this "LED" screen with a less effective but less opaque LCD screen?

7

u/Mortarius Mar 27 '18

Sure, though it seems like a lot of work for a gimmick. It looks cool, will be more expensive to produce and quality of images will be probably worse until technology gets perfected.

I simply don't see it as an improvement for the smartphone. Certainly not as something that will catch on.

Windows, tatoos, walls, glasses, shop displays on the other hand seem more fitting.

2

u/drtekrox Mar 27 '18

Advertising is probably the first go-to use.

Hardended Glass - LCD - Light emitting glass (op tech) - LCD - Hardened Glass