Trends come and go, and some designs even return with a vengeance. That applies not only in the fashion world but in other industries as well, including interior and even office designs. In the not-so-distant past, cubicles were torn down to give way to open floor plans. That more social and more democratic design, however, also came with costs to focus and productivity, which has resulted in some offices bringing back those boxes that try to give you a small sanctuary in a storm of distractions. Rather than just confining space, however, cubicles also offer opportunities to personalize and optimize, and this new computer monitor takes that to heart in a rather novel way.
Desk space is always limited, whether you’re working in a cubicle, an office floor plan, or even at home. It can be even more limited, however, when those work dividers are involved because they put boundaries in three dimensions. That’s why some people have become a little bit more creative by utilizing the vertical space that these walls provide, but the desk space occupied by a computer monitor still takes a whole chunk out of what’s left.
The aptly named LG Libero 27MQ70QC monitor frees up that space so that your desk is actually left for things that you actually use rather than just look at. You can technically buy some mounting accessories for a plain computer monitor, but this LG screen comes with one built-in already. Plus, it does so in a rather innovative way so that you can actually use the monitor on your desk like normal if you no longer have any wall to hang it from.
The trick to the Libero is a folding stand that also acts as a handle that can hang on hooks over your cubicle or any wall, for that matter. That stand even lets you tilt the monitor forward or backward to your preferences and comfort. Everything about the Libero’s design revolves around this duality. For example, the included webcam is removable and has dedicated ports top and bottom so that it will always sit on the “top” of the monitor, regardless of the orientation.
The 27-inch LG Libero isn’t just all about this gimmick, though, and it has the trapping of a quality monitor you can expect from the brand. The original $500 price tag, however, might feel a bit too steep since you can MacGyver your own hanging monitor solution for so much less. That said, you do get the benefits of a product that was designed to be used in such configurations rather than having to struggle to make things work on your own.
Although transparent OLEDs haven’t really become mainstream yet, it’s worth thinking about some of the places they could actually be useful. Take the OLED Shelf, for example – an award-winning concept from LG. Designed to blend right into your home’s decor, the OLED shelf comes with a mantelpiece on top, and a transparent glass panel on the base, running all the way to the floor. Where reality truly blurs into magic is when a part of the transparent glass panel comes to life with pixels, turning into a television. Designed to be a shelf, television, notification center, or even an ambient light, the OLED Shelf truly puts transparent displays to good use – and with the ability to selectively activate pixels, it really creates an experience that feels magical, with transparent glass suddenly turning into opaque dynamic images!
With every sufficiently advanced technology, its most important metric of success comes from its perceived application. A good product drives customer adoption, which then helps bring down the price of the tech, making it even more accessible. It’s the reason why folding phones and rolling TVs have failed to bring down the price of flexible OLED touchscreens because the tech hasn’t become the commercial success companies hoped it would. Transparent OLEDs suffer a similar fate – the right product isn’t driving the right demand, which is a prerequisite to help bring costs down and production up. That’s where LG’s OLED Shelf hopes to rectify things.
Sort of a Serif TV moment for transparent displays, the OLED Shelf is both a television as well as a mantelpiece, allowing you to place objects on top of it. The TV, for the most part, remains transparent (and therefore blank), but switch it on and the glass magically springs to life. The plain wall behind the TV provides the perfect blank canvas to allow you to see images clearly (a patterned wallpaper would probably create a visual conflict). Moreover, the transparent panel can be more than just a TV, doubling up as a space for widgets, notifications, or even as a faux fireplace!
Ever heard of those fashion shows where designers try to make a statement by including some sort of display or screen on accessories or the dresses themselves? While those eccentric designs are limited to runways, for now, they could also be a preview of our near future. Some companies would paint a future that revolves around the metaverse, but it’s more likely that we will live in a world filled with screens everywhere. Not just on billboards or walls, mind, but on almost everything that can hold a display panel. And if stretchable displays like LG’s ever become commonplace, you can bet it will only be a matter of time before you’ll see patches of screens on clothes as well.
Display makers like LG have been playing around with screens that don’t necessarily have to lay flat all the time. Even though it has exited the mobile market, LG has been investing heavily in flexible screens for use in electronics like rollable TVs and foldable devices. But while those can bend and roll, they actually don’t change their overall shape or dimensions. Those are pretty much fixed, which makes them unsuitable for certain applications that require screens to be deformable as well.
That’s exactly the kind of screen that LG’s display-making arm just showed off. Without getting into the messy technical details, what it revealed was a 12-inch screen that can be pulled and stretched to cover the same area as a 14-inch screen. The screen has a pixel density of 100dpi, which is far below what you might be used to on smartphones today. The fact that it can even have that level of quality when you twist and stretch the screen is already quite the feat.
It might sound like yet another crazy invention that’s looking for a problem to solve, but it admittedly has more flexible applications, pardon the pun, beyond foldable laptops and rollable TVs. Because of the way these displays can stretch even for just a little bit, they’re perfect for use in industries such as textile, automotive, fashion, mobility, furniture, and the like. You can imagine clothes that can display not just logos but animation, which sounds both cool and dystopian at the same time, well in line with the start of a cyberpunk era.
At the same time, however, that also means that there will be an even greater amount of information overload and distractions in our foreseeable future. It will be a sweet opportunity for advertisers, with all the concerns that it would entail. That said, this LG stretchable display is still at an early stage, so it’s too early to tell whether it will become a standard artifact of our near-future.
Designed as a proof of concept by Seoul-based Jei Design Works, the LG Display Showcase TV visually abstracts and caricatures the idea of a television having a large frame and bezels. Quite like the Samsung Serif TV‘s own personal take on the television ‘frame’, the LG Display Showcase does a wonderful job of reinterpreting the television archetype. The TV itself is an incredibly slim OLED panel with practically no bezels, and it sits in a stunning metallic skeletal frame that feels like looking at an old TV through an X-ray machine. The frame is large yet visually weightless, adding drama without adding volume. In a world where companies are trying to build televisions thin enough to disappear into the wall, the LG Display Showcase unapologetically occupies space in a way that still doesn’t feel heavy.
Designer: Jei Design Works
The beauty of the LG Display Showcase is truly that rose gold frame that surrounds the TV. It’s rare for a television’s bezel/frame to look more alluring than the panel itself (and an OLED panel no less), but the LG Display Showcase does it wonderfully, almost like the precious metal surrounding a gemstone. The purpose of Display Showcase, according to the designers at Jei Design Works, was to have a television that could look like a work of art, beautiful enough not for just homes, but also offices, galleries, and retail spaces. The frame’s design, to that very end, can be placed on console tables thanks to its feet, but it can also be mounted on walls or from ceilings using hooks that let you ‘hang’ the frame.
The visual lightness of the LG Display Showcase is enhanced by the fact that the display in its center literally has no discernible bezels. It sits well aligned within the rose gold outer skeleton, which also conveniently helps with cable management.
The TV, as thin as it is, houses a set of speakers on the top that help fill the room with audio. Given that the television is never placed completely against the wall means there’s always a chance that the audio will bounce around and get amplified a slight bit, although that’s purely based on my own gut feeling.
Ultimately, the LG Display Showcase is a stunningly minimalist OLED TV that really sits front and center in any kind of space. It takes terms like sleek and modern and reinterprets them differently, going for something more artistic than simply a paper-thin TV that sits flat against your living room wall. The LG Display Showcase’s unique frame design becomes its own mount, allowing it to sit on tabletops as well as hang on walls and from ceilings. The OLED TV has character but blends well into all sorts of decors, making it perfect for homes, offices, galleries, retail spaces, and experience centers.
Samsung might be crazy about foldable phones and is trying to make them mainstream, but these aren’t the only futuristic designs that could change the way we use smartphones forever. In some ways, it might actually be the less practical and less economical option, considering all the costs and compromises that had to be made to make it work well. Another option that phone manufacturers have been looking into is a phone that expands its display by rolling out part of the screen. LG was one of those dreamers and was on the verge of finally making it happen when it sadly had to close up its mobile shop. While the LG Rollable will no longer be, new information and videos show how this design could have offered a better way to have a phone and a tablet in one.
To be fair, there is no clear winner yet among the different designs of these “morphing” smartphones. Foldables are currently leading the race, but it might only be a matter of time before rollables start rolling out. Despite being relatively older, foldable designs still have a lot of growing up to do. For example, one design requires having a second on the outside to make the phone even usable when folded. There is also still plenty of room to improve the hinge in order to reduce creasing. There’s also the fact that the flexible panel used is still more fragile than the regular displays on regular phones.
As this new hands-on video shows, the LG Rollable almost fixes most of those concerns. When rolled up, it is pretty much just a regular phone in a regular size that happens to have a softer display on the back. When rolled out, however, the 6.8-inch phone becomes a 7.4-inch tablet that, while smaller in size, could easily replace “mini” tablets in terms of use.
That’s the same spiel that phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold series make, but a rollable design has a few advantages. One of the biggest is that the “main” part of the display doesn’t need to be flexible and fragile and can be as rigid as typical smartphone screens. Only the area that actually bends and rolls has to be flexible. This makes the phone easily usable in its rolled-up form while also minimizing the potential for damage.
As a first-gen device, the LG Rollable does still have a few flaws. The creases aren’t completely gone, and there are actually more than one of them this time. There’s also an audible sound when the motors roll the side of the phone to shrink or expand the display. These imperfections could be solved by iterating over the design and the technology, though that will no longer be possible in LG’s case.
It is definitely a tragedy that LG shut down its mobile business, especially before it had the chance to bring the LG Rollable to the market. There are, of course, other brands that will try to pick up where it left off to prove the feasibility of a rollable design. Perhaps those would have already addressed the flaws of what would have been the market’s first rollable phone and would deliver something that is a bit closer to the ideal form-changing phone.
It’s that time of year again when big brands try to make a big splash in upgrading your home with the latest and greatest in consumer electronics and home appliances. The past two years were filled with devices that tried to fill the needs of the times, offering different ways to sanitize and protect your home against harmful microorganisms. Things have fortunately settled down, and industries have started to recover, putting their attention and resources into products that help make life less stressful and more enjoyable. There are plenty of such products up for show at IFA 2022 in Berlin, and so we distilled the lineup into our top picks for products to keep an eye on this year.
Zendure Superbase V Portable Home Battery
Thanks to natural calamities and resource shortages, power blackouts have become more common these past few years than ever before. Power banks might be enough for phones and even some laptops, but they are useless to power anything else, especially for extended periods of time. Gasoline-chugging generators do exist, of course, but the dangers they pose both to people and the environment make them inefficient and costly in the long run. Clean Energy Tech startup Zendure is putting its best foot forward this year with a new energy system that can power your house or even your car in a sustainable way.
With a capacity that can reach up to 64kWh thanks to its expandable design, the Zendure Superbase V Portable Energy System has enough juice to give power to a house in an emergency. It even has a power outlet for charging EVs. Despite its large capacity and size, it can still be moved around like a cart on wheels. More importantly, the semi-solid state battery inside can be charged using solar power, offering a more sustainable solution to electricity problems. It’s a win-win solution for both humans and the planet.
Leica Cine 1 Projector
Along with cutting cables, some homeowners have also started getting rid of TVs that take up space even when not in use. While still waiting for the perfect rollable TV, home projectors have become more attractive and more practical solutions, especially when you want a bigger screen without losing wall space. Famed camera maker Leica is jumping into this market, and its first attempt is as classy as anything that bears its signature “Coke” logo.
The Leica Cine 1 short-throw projector utilizes triple RGB lasers to deliver picture-quality 4K images and videos on an area equivalent to a 100-inch TV. Despite all that power, the projector manages to keep a compact size that will fit in any room arrangement. Even better, it also bears Leica’s design language, with a sleek aluminum body with an automatic dust cover to protect the lens. Stylish and functional, this home projector promises to add life to a space, both through its design and through the videos it will play.
LG OLED Flex Bendable TV
TV innovation hasn’t been standing still, especially if you’ve been keeping track of recent buzzwords. While curved TVs haven’t exactly become the norm, they’ve become a force to reckon with in the market. Not everyone is convinced that they need a curved TV, though, or at least not all the time. LG’s latest trick is to give people the ability to choose between the two whenever they want.
Utilizing its expertise in flexible OLED panels, the brand’s new 42-inch TV can lay flat or bend to a curve with a push of a button. Designed primarily with gaming in mind, the LG OLED Flex LX3 has plenty of features that benefit even non-interactive content like movies and TV shows. Now you no longer have to make an upfront decision to go flat or curved, freeing you to enjoy content in the best way possible.
LG MoodUp Color-Changing Fridge
Once upon a time, appliances were simply functional pieces of equipment and nothing more. These days, they have not only become smarter but have also become an expression of the owner’s personality and interests. Bespoke home appliances are becoming a little bit more common, but they can also be a little bit too specific to a certain style or theme. LG’s new fridge, however, tries to shake things up a bit by letting people choose the doors’ colors on a whim.
The LG MoodUp refrigerator’s doors are covered with LED panels that can change their color depending on your, well, mood. You can select different colors for each door or you can set it to follow a motif based on seasons, locations, and moods. These panels can also serve as visual notifications, like when you left a door open. The refrigerator also has a built-in speaker that you can use to play music from your smartphone via Bluetooth. Of course, the colors of the doors can sync to that music as well, truly pushing the mood up on any occasion.
JBL Tour Pro 2 Earbuds
Truly Wireless Stereo or TWS earbuds have come a long way over the past years. Spurred by the retirement of the headphone jack on smartphones, these tiny audio devices have seen plenty of innovation in terms of features and designs. In contrast, the cases that hold these earbuds have remained practically the same, mostly changing only in shape. The JBL Tour Pro 2 tries to change that and make the earbuds case as smart as what it holds inside.
Portrait Of Young Caucasian Stylish Man On Sunny Day In The City.
The earbuds themselves are what you would expect from the brand, featuring features like adaptive noise canceling and spatial sound. What truly sets it apart is its smart charging case, which has its own 1.45-inch touch screen that lets you control the earbuds without having to take out your phone. It’s not an earth-shattering new feature, but it does level up the experience for the first time.
Philips Hue Lightguide Bulbs
Lighting can make or break the mood in a room, not to mention affect people’s productivity in that space. Since the smart home explosion a few years back, lighting was the first to be connected to the Internet, giving people better control over the hues in their homes or offices. As one of the pioneers of that smart lighting market, Philips Hue has to constantly innovate and mix things up to fend off the competition, and its new statement lighting collection tries to step up to that challenge.
The new Philips Hue Lightguide Bulbs mix the old and the new with large glass bulbs in modern shapes like ellipses and triangles. Diffused light comes from an inner tube that you can, of course, control with your smartphone. Whether hanging from pendants or sticking up on stands, these bulbs give some character to a space, even when they’re turned off.
Electrolux AEG Kitchen Innovations
Electrolux is one of the most trusted names in the home appliance market, and it continues to push the envelope to meet the changing needs and trends of the times. Sometimes that means jumping on the smart home appliance bandwagon. Other times, it means making a commitment to sustainability and resource efficiency.
Designer: Electrolux
The AEG 7000 GreenZone refrigerator, for example, boasts using 70% recycled plastic for its inner liner walls, while the AEG 8000 series has new cooling technology that tries to preserve food longer so that they don’t go to waste. For those who love cooking at home, the AEG 800 Bridge/FlexiBridge with eXTractor sucks up vapor and recycles the air back into the kitchen, removing the stress of lingering odors while preparing your favorite meals.
Tineco Toasty One smart toaster
Everything’s becoming smarter these days, from the lights to washing machines to even toothbrushes. There’s always room to add a little intelligence to consumer electronics, especially when it means relieving our brains from having to fret over mundane stuff. It might sound excessive at first, but a smart bread toaster with a touch screen can be pretty convenient.
The Tineco Toasty One can toast two slices of bread like other toasters, but it can have different settings for each of them. It can even detect the condition of the bread to automatically set the right heat for the desired crispiness. Of course, you can input your own preference, and it can remember different settings for up to eight people. OK, it might be overboard for some, but the toaster’s somewhat cute design definitely fits the kitchen of the future.
Bluetti Green Power Generators
Portable power generators that replace fuel generators are becoming more popular these days. Having emergency power that is clean, green, and safe is almost critical in this day and age, whether it’s for spending the weekend outdoors or living through a power outage. Bluetti is one of the most trusted brands in that growing market, and it’s showing off its latest solution to keep the lights on in the darkness.
The new Bluetti AC500 modular portable power generator steps up the game with a larger inverter that can dish out 5000W. When paired with B300 or B300S battery modules, it can provide an astounding 18,432Wh of power for the whole house. What makes it different from most battery-powred generators is that you can decide just how many modules you want to bring along, simplifying its portability. Plus, you can also charge it using solar power, creating a more sustainable solution to your electricity problems.
ASUS ZenBook 17 Fold OLED
Smartphones aren’t the only ones that are getting a foldable treatment. Although it’s happening more slowly, even tablets and laptops are getting foldable screens as well. There might still be some hesitation and doubt on whether it’s a fad or the next wave in computing, but devices that can change their forms will definitely become more common in the near future.
The ASUS ZenBook 17 Fold OLED is one of the pioneers of this still nascent market. A 17.3-inch 2.5K screen that can fold into two 12.5-inch Full HD screens gives a whole new meaning to multitasking. Whether it will survive the test of time and hard work remains to be seen, but its launch marks the start of something new.
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold (16-inch)
Credit where credit is due, Lenovo is actually one of the first to demonstrate that it really believed in the foldable laptop hype. The first Thinkpad X1 Fold, while functional, didn’t exactly meet the hype and imagination of the PC market. Its next-gen iteration, however, inches closer to that ideal.
The new 16-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold refines the design of its predecessor, making the body thinner while also increasing the screen size. It also comes with a new cover stand and an improved Bluetooth keyboard that should make the device more usable. No longer will you feel like you’re carrying around a prototype device and are instead using the computer of the future.
Bang & Olufsen Beosound Theater Soundbar
As TVs become thinner, the need to relocate speakers has also become greater. You can, of course, cram smaller speakers inside those thin frames, but that often comes at the expense of sound quality. Soundbars have become one of the solutions to this problem, offering a way to have an elegant speaker near an equally elegant TV. And when it comes to elegance, there are few names you can trust more than Bang & Olufsen.
The marque’s new Beosound Theater is unsurprisingly another proof of its expertise in blending audio quality and aesthetics. Whether standing alone or paired with a TV, the soundbar looks stylish and attractive, unlike common boxy soundbars. Inspired by sailboats, the Beosund Theather’s curved body looks like it’s floating on air, giving it a sense of grandeur and adventure that matches the heart-racing sounds that come from it.
Yaber Pico T1 portable projector
While short-throw home projectors are gaining popularity as alternatives to traditional TVs, another kind of projector is making its way into people’s travel bags or even pockets. Pico projectors offer the opportunity to enjoy videos or make presentations anywhere, as long as you have the right light conditions. Given how projectors work, it’s hard to find the right balance between portability and performance, something that Yaber gets mostly correct.
The Yaber Pico T1 itself is like a shorter but thicker smartphone, and it can easily fit into your jeans’ pocket. It does output at a resolution of 960×540, but it can do so at a screen size of up to 100 inches. The downside is that it doesn’t have an internal battery, so you’ll have to connect it to a compatible power bank. That said, all its accessories still fit nicely in a pouch that you can conveniently carry around if you want a cinema on the go.
Huawei
In spite of and despite all odds, Huawei continues to bring quality products to meet the needs and demands of today’s consumers. From powerful smartphones to professional laptops, Huawei brings a plethora of choices across different markets and tiers. The Huawei nova 10 and nova 10 Pro, for example, bring a 60MP front-facing camera that’s sure to excite selfie lovers with limited budgets.
For those more focused on productivity, the Huawei MatePad Pro brings a tablet to rival the iPad Pro with a 120Hz OLED screen and a Huawei M Pencil stylus. The new MateBook X Pro, on the other hand, packs a 3.1K 14.2-inch screen into a Windows-powered laptop powered by the latest 12th-gen Intel Core processors. Whether it’s for lifestyle, entertainment, or productivity, Huawei has a product that has one of the best bang-for-buck offers in designs that make you feel you’re really getting more for less.
Curved screen displays have been in trend for the last couple of years, and now we are looking up the horizon for the next big move. LG has just announced a cool OLED TV that is capable of bending on demand to morph into a curved display. This announcement comes on the back of Corsair showing off its 45-inch bendable gaming monitor at Gamescom just a few days ago.
Dubbed the LG OLED Flex – a.k.a LX3 model – it is touted to be the first bendable OLED TV on the market. The 42-inch display is targeted at gamers and professionals who demand the next level of immersion, and also want the flexibility to have a normal flat screen TV. The transition between the two modes happens seamlessly with remote control.
Even better the display can be set anywhere between the twenty levels of curvature. That means, the bendable feature is fully customizable to a maximum of 900R curve. I can think of scenarios where the screen bend can be toggled for strategy, FPS or racing games for maximum gaming prowess.
The 4K display comes with a 0.1 millisecond response time, 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision, HDMI 2.1, ALLM (auto low latency mode) and support for VRR (variable refresh rate). This display is also G-SYNC compatible and AMD FreeSync Premium certified for a smooth viewing experience. Thus, making it ideal for pairing with the latest gaming consoles like Xbox Series X or PS5.
Another feature that’s very useful is the anti-reflective coating for minimum distraction in a bright environment. The stand on the display is height adjustable – 10 degrees towards or 5 degrees away from the gamer, and tilt adjustable – up and down by 140 millimeters. It also gets dual front-firing speakers for ultra-premium immersive sound output. Therefore, it can be used for other purposes like video editing or binge watching too.
There’s no word on the pricing or availability of this amazing display yet, but it should be positioned competitively to capture the chunk of geeky buyers. As per LG, the Flex bendable display is going to be on display at the IFA 2022 in Germany this week, so better keep an eye!
Air purifiers look boring… so why not turn them into functional furniture pieces?
Although it seems unlikely for a company like LG to dabble in the furniture space, their functional furniture line Aero makes a tad bit of sense. Unveiled at IFA 2022 being held in Berlin, LG’s Aero “blurs the line between beautiful furniture and advanced air purifier, offering a design that can be tailored to meet individual preferences, 360-degree air purification and user-friendly features”, the company said.
Designer: LG
Meet the PuriCare Objet Collection Aero Furniture series (or Aero for short), a set of table-shaped air purifiers from LG. Designed to work as a 360-degree air purifier, the Aero can be placed pretty much anywhere in your room, and comes armed with LG’s Ultra-fine filter, Dust Collector Filter, and Deodorization Filter, ensuring clean air is delivered all across your room. The table comes in three color variants and in both oblong or round shapes.
Although, calling the PuriCare Objet Collection Aero Furniture series just a table-shaped air purifier would be somewhat of a disservice. The Memphis 2.0-ish furniture pieces also have built-in mood lights and even the ability to charge your phone/earbuds using a disc-shaped integrated wireless charging zone on the tabletop surface. Wattage on the wireless charging hasn’t yet been specified, although LG did mention that the purifier can be controlled using a series of buttons on the underside of the table’s surface, while the mood light itself can be operated using the LG ThinQ app. My biggest concern, however, remains the fact that even though the table’s designed to be centrally located in a room, chances are it’ll need to be connected to a power outlet (given its obvious functions), resulting in a wire running from the table all the way to the nearest switchboard.
Personally, the Aero isn’t the kind of furniture I’d have in my own home, although I get the appeal of deviating from the boring, ugly, air purifier template. Earlier last year, IKEA unveiled the STAKRVIND, an air purifying side-table with a more domestic-driven aesthetic, and in 2020, Sauberair unveiled a 3.5″ inch thick air purifier that disguised itself as wall-mounted art!
With a lot of people continuing to work from home even after the worst of the pandemic is over (hopefully), we are seeing products that want to help people create a semblance of work-life balance. It’s crucial now more than ever for people to make sure that the lines between home life and work life are not always blurred. Technology can play a part in creating this balance and we’re seeing some great product concepts out there that will hopefully become actual products later on.
Designer: Studio WA + CH
One concept that won 3rd place at a recent LG Display competition is Vivid, a movable augmented reality screen that can be used for work but also turns into part of your decoration when needed. It’s basically a virtual divider that uses a transparent OLED screen that can serve as a whiteboard or conference call screen when you’re working and then an AR screen when you finish your workday and want to relax. With just a click you’ll be able to transform your space from busy to peaceful.
Vivid has a built-in camera on its right side which can be pretty useful for work especially when you’re doing video calls. Instead of just being on a small screen on your laptop or phone, you get a more immersive experience when meeting with colleagues. It can also be used as a digital whiteboard for those brainstorming sessions or even when you’re just working on your own and you need to write out ideas on a bigger space.
When you’re transitioning from work to rest, the OLED display becomes a space where you can display things like plants, artwork, or other images or videos that you can consider relaxing. You can choose to use the transparent standby mode or the display mode, depending on what you want to blend in with your surroundings. You can also use the screen for viewing videos, browsing social media, playing games, or use it as your personal trainer with exercise content.
The device is designed to be light and portable so it’s easy to move around in your house. It can also be combined with a few other screens so you can create a bigger digital wall if needed. I wouldn’t mind having at least one in my home especially now that I’m trying to figure out a way to balance work, play, and rest.
Display makers like LG, Samsung, and TCL are trying hard to push not just deformable screens like foldables and rollables but also transparent panels. This obsession with transparent screens is perhaps fed by science fiction props and futuristic concept designs. Reality, however, doesn’t always match expectations and fantasy, and transparent displays, especially TVs, have one particular problem that makes them less ideal for actual, everyday use, especially in bright rooms where colors can get muted and blacks virtually nonexistent. That, of course, doesn’t mean that manufacturers and consumers have to give up on that dream. They only need to find a suitable solution to this problem, like this rather interesting frame that uses shutters to make a transparent TV temporarily opaque.
Transparent displays look almost magical because of how we’ve become accustomed to knowing there are electronics or even backlighting behind the screen. It is admittedly a technological marvel that deserves some praise, but its novelty quickly wears off when one starts to show normal content. In particular, transparent OLEDs like the ones being pushed by LG have problems with black colors because of how ambient light can shine through the back. LG Display collaborated with designers to think of possible solutions, and the Partial Screen is one such concept with a literal twist.
In this concept, a 55-inch transparent display is framed inside a wooden box, with what looks like wooden slats behind it. These 25 shutters are individually motorized, and each can turn independently of one another, which makes it easy to have them move in succession or in specific patterns. While the shutters look interesting themselves, they serve a greater purpose of turning the transparent display into a regular screen.
What happens is that when all the shutters rotate and face forward, they completely block any light from shining through the back of the enclosure. This, in effect, creates an opaque background that will finally make blacks pop out and increase the display’s contrast. And since LEDs emit their own light, unlike LCDs, the “blinds” don’t prevent the display from showing other colors. In fact, they might look even more lush and vibrant, thanks to the increased contrast.
More than just enabling the transparent screen to better display blacks, however, the Partial Screen actually enables other use cases that make the display look more interesting. Since the shutters can be moved individually, they can probably be programmed to rotate in different ways, which could be in sync with what’s being displayed on the screen. This can create an interesting dynamic visual where the shutters seemingly dance to the screen’s contents, allowing it to display black portions in one moment and become fully transparent in another.
Of course, none of these complicated solutions would be necessary if the screen wasn’t transparent in the first place. Indeed, some people regard these fancy displays as a solution looking for a problem rather than something that fills a specific need. Granted, this could very well be where the display panel industry is heading anyway, so it pays to be prepared to have solutions ready when transparent TVs become commonplace.
