Lenovo's Project Crystal is first laptop with a transparent MicroLED display | Hacker News Reader

Lenovo's Project Crystal is first laptop with a transparent MicroLED display

engadget.com

44 pointsadwmayer55 comments

This wouldn't be the first ThinkPad with a transparent display. The ThinkPad 755CV/CDV[0] let you lay the screen on a light projector to become an LCD projector.

[0] https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:755CV

Wow I’d forgotten all about this. There was so much hype about this when it came out.

I wouldn’t count that as a transparent “display” since it needs a light source when detached, or it wouldn’t be of much use.

So if we only consider self-contained transparent displays, this is indeed a first?

Wow the overhead projector. Such a blast from the past. This is when things got even more boring than the death by powerpoint of today :) usually black and white and a nerdy professor speaking in monotone for a whole hour or more.

The first word underneath the article’s title is “sadly”. I’m not sure why. A transparent display is the last thing I’d want on a PERSONAL device. What I do with my personal computer is my own business, I don’t need the whole world seeing everything I do.

Sure, this kind of display has its own use cases, as the article describes. But those are pretty niche.

I don't care so much about the privacy - I care about the fact that there are severe usability issues.

Transparent displays make sense where you need to present information in a view of the real world, ie a HUD.

They make absolutely jack shit sense everywhere else. You've got less contrast, and even worse, the contrast is variable across the screen. It could even be moving. It could be exceptionally bad - this screen would be unreadable if, say, a beam of sunlight were striking the floor that is in the background of the display.

The only reason we think transparent displays are "cool" is because scifi authors, TV show writers, and hollywood are fucking obsessed with them. In The Expanse everyone has a transparent phone and my first thought was "how the fuck are you supposed to see anything on that screen!?"

I doubt any company has done usability studies on the damn things. They'll get as far as prototypes like these, people will try to use them, quickly figure out they're complete shit, and all the transparent-specific R&D will have been wasted unless it can be pivoted into HUD tech, but HUDs can't be made like this because the focal length is wrong.

> I doubt any company has done usability studies on the damn things. They'll get as far as prototypes like these, people will try to use them, quickly figure out they're complete shit, and all the transparent-specific R&D will have been wasted unless it can be pivoted into HUD tech, but HUDs can't be made like this because the focal length is wrong.

Products like these are definitely not supposed to sell well and Lenovo doesn't expect it to. What it does is deliver a "wow" factor. This is effectively advertising.

I'd like to see it, when you sit opposite someone with a laptop it does feel like a bit of barrier, perhaps this would lessen that? Hard to imagine without actually trying it, which I don't imagine would be happening to me anytime soon!

Now you can know for sure that they're not paying attention to you.

And they can see me hiding my phone watching tiktubes while I pretend to do business, business, business, numbers, numbers, numbers.

A HUD only makes sense if it's projected at a similar focal distance to the other stuff you're looking at, which this also doesn't do. So it's not really useful for that purpose either.

I think if the (transparent) phone can somehow blur the background and add more darkness then you could make it a pretty usable product... not anytime soon, I wouldn't think...

Yes, it sucks as a monitor.

But I want one. I am normally a form of function guy, my entire setup looks cobbled together but is comfortable and speedy... But man I wish I could live in the future and at my age I am ready for playing pretend with a laptop like that.

Ah, finally. A laptop that truly runs on windows. The future is clear to me now. Windows on windows.

Now you can open Windows on your open window. Air conditioners be damned.

With root access spyware in spyware

There’s a joke about transparent displays in the recent MCU film “The Marvels”: “if this is all so secret then why do you use transparent screens”?

What's a use-case for somethings like this?

I see this as something that might work well as a front window of a car as an extension for the main display, but not as much as a replacement for an actual computer monitor. Cool tech though.

Virtual Connect Four. Though what this brings to mind is one of Microsoft's mid-10s blue sky concept videos of seamless auto translation, where they used a translucent display as users on either side interacted with it and viewed the speech bubbles in the orientation of each viewer.

Given the capabilities of audio and text NNs these days, along with such displays, it would actually be plausible now.

I've been trying to think of use cases since I read about this a few days ago. I can't think of much, especially in laptop format. However, if you go beyond laptop into larger screens:

- A tv that becomes mostly invisible when turned off would be nice (I think I saw a tech demo recently?)

- A conference room screen on the central table but invisible until turned on would be a step towards the holographs you see characters meeting over in scifi movies. However, I'm not sure how much actual utility it has beyond cool factor - especially since all the text will be mirrored for those standing behind it

... and that's about it. The idea that you could put something behind the screen and sketch it which I've seen floated sounds kinda dumb. Much easier to just take a photo and draw over that.

Shitty sci-fi movies where the producer wants to show both the screen and the actor's face at the same time.

If I had the money I'd totally use something like this for HN for example. Set the background to transparent, maybe separate the comments from each other, and you can see your legs or your mug in the spaces between comments, this sounds something that I'd totally do.

From TFA:

> The most obvious use case would be sharing info somewhere, like a doctor’s office or a hotel desk. Instead of needing to flip a screen around, you could simply reverse the display via software, allowing anyone on the other side to see it while getting an in-depth explanation.

Beautiful hardware, but I do like my privacy. Maybe you could cover it with stickers?

If you cover the back with black tape, it will also improve the display contrast.

It'll be basically unusable other than for very specific, niche applications unless you're able to control a privacy/contrast layer behind the main screen.

Ignoring the privacy aspect, as I've found out trying to adjust opacity for my windows etc., working with more than a very slight blurred level of visibility of anything behind the windows is a nightmare, even with hacked up outlines and glows around characters to make them stand out more against a more translucent background.

If you could make the windows arbitrarily opaque but the background translucent, then maybe.

I would love one of these displays that integrates smart film for a real "frosted glass" look. And since it's smart film, it'd be able to become totally transparent too.

Gimme a real physical keyboard though, and no "AI".

The thing is, for the privacy aspect, I'd need the frosted glass look to only work from my side of the display. Even a blurred/frosted display leaks way too much information if parts of it is high intensity colour up close.

Maybe if it had dual screens and cameras so it could be made to look as if it is translucent from both sides but the 'outside' is faked however you want it to be.

You could 3d print a plastic cover to put o the back.

Oh wait...

Anyone remember the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness: https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_pureness-revie...

This doesn't mean much if they can't sell it. This applies even if they had plans to turn it into a product.

Lenovo has a history of building innovative laptops, like the recently launched laptop-tablet hybrid with a secondary e-ink display[1]. However the resulting product often ends up being underwhelming and with mediocre user experience.

[1]: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/lenovo-thinkbook-plus-gen-4

It's hilarious to see companies making stuff like this that's really cool, then ruining it with "AI" (which has literally no application here) and going too far with other gimmicks, such as removing the keyboard.

A normal laptop with a display like this would be super cool. But take it so far that you replace the keyboard with a non-tactile pane of glass and I'm glad this is just a concept that won't ever be sold.

I think a tablet would be a better application of this technology. I could see this used to accomplish augmented reality w/o a headset.

People will see their feet when they walk and the road when they drive once these screens make it to mobile devices. Progress!

> People will see their feet when they walk

This is funnier than you intended.

I can see PC gaming enthusiasts wanting side panels made of this, mainly for real time performance charts and hentai.

This is something for the Apple Vision Ultra to integrate along with electrochromic glass or some physical cover to go from full pass through to fully immersed VR. Would look like a clear version of those wrap around Star Trek glasses.

Finally, I could use _actual_ wallpaper as the desktop background ;)

While the display doesn’t have very good obvious advantages in actual use, that would be cool enough to use just because it’s possible :)

But what would you stick the wallpaper to? If it's on the screen, then you'd just be looking at the blank part of the wallpaper, right?

Multiple layers of these displays can show stuff in near 3d.

As a cube you could do some star wars like display. Though i dont know what we would gain since it would be pretty rough compared to a rotational display.

If ignoring cost, the question would be how truly transparent the off pixels are when stacked in enough layers to get a reasonable resolution.

Looks really futuristic, but I would be more excited if Lenovo finally offered their ThinkPads without a keypad, so the keyboard is centered to the screen.

I think the screen is cool and all but I am really bugged by the idea of a touch keyboard. That's the one thing I never want in my notebooks. :/

Have some company promise to make it foldable, to add blockchain and AI, make an IPO based on a Potemkin Prototype, then run off with the money. Easy.

Don't forget to add the metaverse and NFT! More profit.

Aside from looking cool, it’s really hard to imagine where Lenovo sees the product market fit for this.

Wondering if there are any possible applications for eyewear lenses

I fail to see the point of this technology in a laptop. I can see it having applications for windows, TVs, monitors etc, but how does this make any sense in the laptop format?

I figure they tossed it into a laptop because its what Lenovo is most well-known for producing. Its a prototype tech demo, definitely cool looking but clearly highly impractical.

It did remind me of "switchable glass": https://www.smartglassinternational.com/electric-switchable-...

But as an aside, the development of Micro LEDS is pretty interesting, I've never seen it in any prototypes before.

Yeah, having this e.g. on a window, or on a mirror, or anywhere where being able to pop up a display might be awesome but having a permanent black rectangle would be ugly would be great, but for a laptop it's a gimmick.

Expect to see a variant in a few sci fi movies and for it to not be seen again.

I've knocked over a couple of cups of tea/coffee hidden behind my laptop in my life(usually while pushing my laptop back to make space for something on the table), and wished the screens were a bit less obscuring ...

Coming soon to a Samsung refrigerator near you.

This beauty dies with the case you have to put on all that unprotected glass.

Jobs would have had a wallop of a joke for this one.

but why though?

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