How long before this technology could be a reality?

King Damager

King Damager

King Damager

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Just saw this, and whilst it clearly is not going to be what is in the next iPhone/Galaxy S IV/HTC whatever (before we start the Apple Bashing)...

How long do we reckon before the kid's dreams are a reality?

In an odd way, the 'see through' screen doesn't seem that difficult to emulate. It would surely be the simple case of getting a HD video running at all times and using that as your BG. Would be a massive battery drain mind...

Other features, like the keyboard and stuff, seem quite cool, but how close are we to technology like this, available to the mass consumers?

I'd say 10 years at a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was longer...

kd
 
Random input alert maybe, though funnily enough my wife last night asked what the next technology round the corner may be. I gave the obvious, holographics, answer. My wife said see through screens. Didn't know what she was on about really and couldn't see it being that needed.
Now she is all smug, "I just know certain things." :mad: :p
 
There are already apps that can use your camera to create a background/wallpaper.

The keyboard technology is available, but not built into phones yet. They normally need to project downwards so I don't see how you can do it from such a small angle.
 
What people always forget with mock-ups like that is a simple question - where would the battery go? Right now, the battery takes up a huge percentage of what makes up the iphone. You're going to need to reduce the battery size by about 80% to make that, in any way, viable. As battery capacities tend to grow by about 5% a year an 80% drop would take 12 years. It could be accomplished faster if we can make lower drain chips - which will undoubtedly happen - but even then you're probably looking at well over 6 years away.

EDIT: People pointing to apps that can use your camera as a background/wallpaper are, I think, missing the point - this mockup is clearly see-through not just faking it.
 
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Been googling, seems these see through/transparent screens are already in production.
Actually I remember seeing this on the news around the beginning of the year.
 
While I don't see the point in this tech in phones, stick a large screen behind the windshield of my car and relay information like speed etc on to it as well as having a GPS overlay of the road as you see it would be very nice.

Would this be similar tech to the android glasses that overlay info on the world?
 
Everything it does there we practically already have, just more of a primitive form. Would not benefit us any more then today's tech.
 
King Damager said:
[..]
Other features, like the keyboard and stuff, seem quite cool, but how close are we to technology like this, available to the mass consumers?
Click to expand...

As far as I know, all of that is possible now. Availability to mass consumers is limited by the cost that the mass market is willing to pay for what are essentially gimmicks. Projected keyboards look good but are next to useless for typing on. An apparently see-through screen is cool, but what use is it on a handheld computer? Is that use worth the battery drain that you point out? Well, maybe for the first few days of "hey, check this out - cool, huh?". I've seen one semi-practical use for it as the front cover of a vending machine, but of course that's mains powered and not really mass market.

I think that they''ll eventually find their way to mass market when a manufacturer needs some gimmicks to differentiate their products from rival's products and it's cheap enough for them to do it, but I doubt if it will be very soon.
 
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