Let’s take a moment and step into the future, shall we? When you think about what the future might hold for mobile technology, there are a couple of things that emerge as “futuristic”. I want to address one of those things here, as we decide now whether we’ll be better off with transparent tech in the future. Seems like every time we watch a movie that has anything to do with the future, we’re always seeing these crystal-clear phones and tablets that are basically sheets of glass, or plastic that display information on them. It’s probably the next step after we finally get that edge-to-edge, top to bottom screen we all seem to want.

A mysterious engineer from Edinburgh, known as Professor Scott, provided the formula for transparent aluminum

Cool factor

Look, I get it. Transparent tech is pretty cool. Beyond all practicality, it would be just awesome to carry around a glass slab that comes to life on command. It’d be like magic, making information appear out of thin air. Trust me, I’m on board with this. Plus, just think about the potential applications of such tech.

With it you can integrate displays and touch screens into just about anything – your windshield, your coffee table, your bathroom mirror, etc. The fact that it’s transparent gives it the main selling point that I look for in tech – there when you need it, out of the way when you don’t. When you think about the kinds of things you could overlay transparent tech onto, it’s really incredible what’s possible.

I could go into paragraphs and paragraphs about what we could integrate the tech into, but I won’t – use your imagination. The fact of the matter is, this kind of tech would be everywhere you need it to be. Phones, tablets, wearables, surfaces, you name it. It would allow you to have information at your fingertips almost anywhere you were. No longer would home devices have to integrate a screen or electronics into their design – they could be overlaid on top. Pretty powerful stuff.

And yet…

But then we have to consider if we need to have all this information everywhere? Do we need to have a touch sensitive screen on your toaster that can read you the latest headlines from Pocketnow.com? It makes me wonder how far the technology would go until it became ridiculous. Dining room tables that could stream Netflix. Doors that can display a “Back in one hour” sign. We’re already at a point where most restaurants are installing LCD TVs to display their menus. I don’t know about you, but I’m not convinced that this is a better experience.

Plus, when you consider the key characteristic of these transparent displays, it should give you pause. It’s not always so easy to read off a transparent display, depending on the background you are holding it against. Black text won’t show up very well if you’re sitting on a train with a grey floor, etc. It’s a usability issue. Perhaps you’re thinking, [...]

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