I used to work at TI in the education/productivity group. Know way to much about it that monster. Worked on the model for the TI-Nspire for a bit. Software guy and not a hardware guy so I know very little how it worked.
Or maybe it's just a completely normal LCD being demoed in front of a cleverly lit diorama. ;)
Demo promotion video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E08IvXQ-rZI&feature=relat...
Edit: A pretty nice in game example of the LCD on the slot in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eEyr6y8kNE&feature=relat...
It looks really really cool in person.
What would be cool is if I could have a sun-powered backlight for my laptop when I want to use it outdoors.
1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transflective_liquid_crystal_di...
One needs a white tent pitched behind the laptop screen, and one needs to sit facing the sun. You'd be looking into the space of the tent, which is much like the display in the OP demonstration except the source of light is the sun coming through diffused through the tent fabric (and there are no buildings). The bottom floor could be a mirror.
SUN
/\
fab. / \ <-- laptop LCD
/ \
/ tent \
--------======== <- keyboard
mirror
True, LCDs are, by their nature, transparent. However their contents are only 'visible' when there is light going through them, and they work by adjusting how much light passes through them using polarization. If you have a full spectrum light behind them, and you have red green and blue dots which you use for color selection, you get a color LCD.
However, these don't generate light. And no, nobody has built one of those yet. To build such a display would no doubt require that you build a pixel out of three (or four) LEDs that are nominally transparent, such that turning them on would cause the pixel to appear.
That would then make for a display which was clear, except for where it had data showing. So far, this technology (outside of using a projector to project the display on to a window where the user sees the reflection as the display) does not exist.
So to the person asking about the slot machines.. they technology behind this is called "multi-layer LCD". I was in Vegas for the CES and I saw these slot machines.. and I couldn't believe my eyes! I did some research and found out that it is actually 2 LCD screens, and one of them.. or both are able to go completely transparent.. thats how you get the 3d effect. Check it out for yourself: http://www.pcworld.com/article/130233/new_slot_machines_prom.... http://www.puredepth.com/technologyPlatform_sw.php?l=en
For me, behind my monitor is a window because I want to be in an area with lots of natural lighting (I've worked in rooms with no windows, and its no fun, after a while it just gets you down). So a see-through LCD would be a total disaster for me.
Apple used to have a Cinema Display monitor with a see through bezel, the see through LCD would look gorgeous in combo with that, if a little impractical.
Maybe the use case is what it looks like not when it is on, but when it is off? I imagine in this scenario it would be something that you wouldn't use as your day to day computer that you spend hours on.
You could build your LCD into the window, then when you're not using it it doesn't impair the view? Or maybe it is useful for HUDs in cars or other vehicles? Build it right into the windscreen?
(But wait - aren't there cars that already have this? Isn't there a merc with nightvision built into it or something like that?)
http://www.patrickbaudisch.com/projects/lucidtouch/index.htm...
If they got it to be self-lit (ie, via the edges), it might be interesting, but it doesn't look to me like that's what it is - it looks like the box behind it is providing all the light. So it is, very precisely, a large, expensive rear-projection display.
Wow. Congrats to the research team, how many DIY LCD hacks did you have to see to realize you could do this?
I'd always thought they were more transparent than that, given that I've seen LCD screens used as projectors: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-LCD-PROJECTOR/ in which case (though there's no way to detect how bright the box behind it is) a highly-transparent screen could indeed be a fairly significant breakthrough.
i ones has this old tech-hippie show me one and telling me: with this device you can actually watch television together! (he put the frame in between our faces with it showing some picture, and he smiled -- i saw the picture AND his smile)