a combination of these and that TV hand gesture control to be combined. We will then have those cool glass command displays so often seen in sci-fi movies!

Can they go opaque whenever needed? I think it would be cool to have a TV that disappears when you don't need it.

Nice one! :)

This brings the whole transparent-glossy-GUI-stuff to a whole new level. I often said "one day, every GUI will look so transparent that you can see the wall behind your monitor". I always thought I was just joking, but...

... but then it occurred to me that if you could get it transparent enough when inactive (ie not tinted like a rapper's Escalade) and combined it with an LED back panel that could be turned black on demand - well then you could have your television in your living room window. Additionally you'd be able to watch TV from you garden by clearing the back panel and horizontally flipping the picture.

So 'd like one of those please, it would be nice to have a living room without an obvious TV sitting at the center of attention.

"both sets have a light transmittance level of 30 per cent"

Which would mean they're no transparent.

of the transparent bits up, and clarity of it up too, wouldn't this allow OLED-coated sunglasses (something of a holy grail for Augmented Reality, I'd imagine!) and windows (see Iron Man / Minority Report for ideas on how to use such a display)?

The pointed haired bosses will love this. Whichever way round the screen is there is no hiding the fact you are smacking some zombies up instead of unbreaking some carp code

These will be perfect for shop windows - where transparency is key, but valuable advertising space also retained. Cost is not important, but visibility in mixed light is; so OLED technology will be perfect.

The best equivalent I've seen so far is laser projection onto a specially coated portion of the window; which has to remain in relative shadow during the day. Displays built into the window will be much more promising, although costly when the window is broken...

The Minority Report technology just moved a little bit closer.

... I seem to be having failure of imagination. Why would I want to be able to see through a TV/computer/phone screen? More to the point, why should I want anyone in front of me to see what I have on my computer/phone screen? I can see some specialist applications (advertising screens, maybe, or cheap head-up displays in cars, but otherwise there seems to be a limited market in the real world.

The real application would augmented reality. Put this over auto windscreens and eyeglasses.

...what is the point? I certainly don't want to look at the wall behind the TV or PC/laptop display.

Transparent TV? Good god, no. There's a reason why the corner of my lounge is blocked off.

However, give me one of these bad-boys so I can have a HUD in my car!

"Additionally you'd be able to watch TV from you garden by clearing the back panel and horizontally flipping the picture."

You *really* want your neighbuors to know which pr0n films you watch?

Then there's the whole copyright thing of playing a rented/bought DVD on a Window TV where the whole world can watch the "illegal" public performance. You'll need curtains on the outside.

You can tell from the comments here, who the sci-fi fans are. The most obvious application for these types of screens is for HUD's, the dream app being the Augmented Reality goggles that feature in a number of sci-fi books - check out Halting State by Charles Stross amongst others. An example from this book is the police-net goggles, that allow the copper to see tags against each property they look at / walk past showing details of the residents, flagging up the crims and the neds etc.