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With New See-Through Display, Samsung Puts the Window in Windows

By Rain Noe - January 16, 2012

in Object Culture

Samsung's new Smart Window is a 22-inch LCD touchscreen that can perform a neat trick: It can disappear completely. On display at CES, the Smart Window was rigged up in a booth that looks out onto a miniature of a town, reinforcing the fact that this could be an actual window in your house (or overlaid on one) with functionality that can be summoned and banished with a few taps. Check it out:

Imagine combining this with Perceptive Pixel's 82-incher, transforming your living room with the picture window into a hi-tech gargantuan workstation that disappears. (And if that were to happen, the real winner would be...Windex. Your fingerprints would be all over the place.)

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MaKo

12 years ago

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Nope, clear fronted fridges do in fact permanently waste a lot of energy because glass being such a poor thermal insulator. Actually, they are banned by law for private homes in many countries for this simple reason and only allowed for POS applications, where they make kind of sense.
Slock, are you American?

BTW.: Clear LCD screens are not that new: Remember the overhead projector overlay frames we used before the invention of the video projector? The same thing, only the contrast was poor, back in these days. In fact there is a clear display in every flat panel TV, only you can't see through because of the backlight panel behind it. Great innovation.
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Aedhan

12 years ago

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I agree with Ray, it is really nice to be able to see outside and enjoy natural light. I see these being used best as space dividers/partitions in offices and collaborative spaces, bringing light to interior spaces rather that blocking light from exterior spaces. ______________________________________________________________ Slock -- Clear fronted fridges are already available. (eg. http://www.subzero-wolf.com/builtin-refrigerators/glass-door-refrigerator-freezer) I don't know why you would need a computer screen on the front of your fridge instead of a much less expensive piece of glass. Having glass on the front of a fridge also eliminates the door storage space, which I know many people use a lot. Also, I don't know how many people have their fridge in a visually pleasing arrangement so seeing into the fridge might not make the kitchen look great. That said, it would save a fair amount of energy.
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Slock

12 years ago

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This will be good for fridges, so you can reduce the time to open the door. This is where you tend to use a lot of energy when foraging through to find items you are looking for, allowing a mass heat transfer from ambient conditions, kicking in the compressor. Clear fronted fridge, do it Samsung!!
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Ray Jepson

12 years ago

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What's wrong with just looking outside and enjoying some natural light?

Great tech. Designers need to figure out where to use it.
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