LG Display, the company that produces the OLED panels used in TVs from LG, Sony, Vizio and others around the world, also showed off some of its coolest, most futuristic technologies at CES 2021.
The focus this year was on its new transparent OLED displays, which LG has improved to provide 40% transparency, compared to the 10% offered in current generations. These types of displays are not new – LG has shown them in some commercial applications, and earlier this year Xiaomi began selling 55-inch transparent TVs in China for $7,200. LG, the world’s only transparent OLED manufacturer, supplies these panels, but as usual, it doesn’t talk about specific products for sale.
The online showroom presented the following scenarios, each with a 55-inch transparent OLED screen.
- Smart Bed: Press a button and the transparent OLED screen rises from a frame at the bottom of the bed to display TV shows or other information. The screen itself doubles as a speaker — a feature found on some current OLED TVs — and LG says the frame and transparent screen can be moved to other areas of the home.
- Restaurant: Appears as part of a sushi bar – the screen between customers and the chef can display menu items or videoswhile people wait for their food, while still allowing viewers to watch the chef as he works.
- Metro window: A window installed in a metro can display route information, weather, news, and maps.
LG says demand for transparent displays is growing in smart homes and buildings, as well as cars, airplanes and subways. Of the three scenarios on the 2021 virtual show floor, the “smart bed” seems to be the least useful to us, but it’s easy to imagine a future where such displays are so cheap and ubiquitous that video or information can be displayed on any surface.
Importantly for CES, for the first time, previously private booths can be made more widely available. LG says its online exhibit space was available to all visitors for the duration of CES 2021.
Information source: cnet.com
