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Comment by ksec | Hacker News Reader

>* Windows in public areas (subway cars, elevators) that display advertisements or animations.

That is exactly what I said [1] when Apple reportedly killed MicroLED and people say MicroLED has no future. Quoting myself:

>Once I saw the Fully transparent MicroLED on Display in this year's CES , it is only a matter of time before it comes to market. I can immediately see luxury Retail shop paying the premium to get it.

Transparent OLED has slight colour shift and yellow tint to it. While Transparent MicroLED is really, fully transparent. The actual cost or price for these "Windows" compared to the additional space in premium Retail location are tiny. Once you have luxury started ordering and they reach a mass production scale cost will come down within a few years. ( ~2030 ).

While MicroLED may never end up in Smartphone or Tablet. I still think they have great potential elsewhere.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40778120

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Given the number of people here that have absolutely seen Blade Runner, it’s surprising that more aren’t making this connection.

Totally. This has Bladerunner and Minority Report vibes to me.

Be amazing in public

Did you just say that technology that gives you dystopic movie vibes would be amazing to have in public?

Well, yes, but what was wrong with those societies generally wasn't the kickass transparent screens.

Minority Report had directed marketing based on eye recognition and people having to buy other people's eyes to keep out of the reach of the panopticon dystopia controlling everything - the kickass transparent screens there were definitely used for dystopic purposes.

Really it's a guns don't kill people - people kill people with guns situation; transparent screens for showing ads all the time at people don't create dystopias, but a capitalist dystopia will be using transparent screens for showing ads at people all the time if they can.

A capitalist dystopia will use anything for showing ads to people all the time if they can. Actually we're already there and have been for years. The global ad market is all about recognizing and finetuning ads to specific people, using techniques a lot more advanced than iris or facial recognition.

The ad industry will use any surface they can, but surfaces where people are already looking are especially profitable and also where ads are most annoying. With transparent displays this can and will include windows everywhere.

>using techniques a lot more advanced than iris or facial recognition.

right, I remember having to reject all advertising cookies the last time I was at the bus stop.

I guess watched very different cyberpunk movies then, since I considered them as one of the worst things showed.

If your cereal box for 2$ has endless steeam of ads or each wall has active ad panel, and so does everything else, thats fuckex up future I'd gladly pay extra to avoid, and double that for my kids. Nothing kickass about that, on contrary.

Per the parent comment, the screen isn’t problematic so much as the culture around them. The dystopic aspect is that they’re used for advertising rather than that they exist.

Imagine yourself working 8+ hours per day standing, with your arms up touching a vertical transparent display...

"Amazing" doesn't have to mean something positive; it often does involve some aspect of delight in common parlance, but it needn't always be used with that intent.

Perhaps amazingly, I myself think that waking up in a scene from Minority Report would be absolutely terrific.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrific

Cue Misapplied Sciences https://www.misappliedsciences.com/

Next gen public displays will follow you as you walk across the square with messaging targeted to you .. as the same is done in parallel to hundred others.

A fucking gas pump loudly playing ads nonstop on it’s screen was enough to make me feel like not enough of the world was on fire, and I hardly ever experience rage.

Ads following people around is straight up harassment and will result in lawsuits, freakouts and righteous violence.

I'm with you and loathe advertising.

What we have to deal with is creeping normalisation.

The majority of the human population using the internet seem to have accepted being grouped into buckets by cookies and targeted with very specific adverts .. from there it's a short hop to public space { facial | phone | device } recognition and targeted adverts.

At least in the US, you can usually press one of the buttons next to the screen (and usually it's one of the corner buttons) to mute the TV while pumping gas.

Try pressing the buttons on screen, there usually is a mute

Second button down on the right side of screen (almost always).

I read once that it’s an accessibility requirement that the screens can be muted.

I haven’t encountered a screen that I couldn’t mute in the last 10+ years.

FWIW, third down on the left is what works at a local chain.

(I was gonna say something about “brute-forcing” it but I know how that might be misinterpreted. Just try all the buttons, if necessary.)

The only constant is this: It varies.

I start with the buttons on the right, because I am right handed and that's easier for me. I start with the top button and work to the bottom.

If silence has not yet been achieved, then I do the same with the buttons on the left.

If silence has still not yet been achieved, then I make a mental note to never give that location any money ever again. (It's a short list, and the irritation makes it very easy to remember each location whether I want to or not.)

(I don't worry about how "brute forcing" might be interpreted. I am doing nothing wrong.)

Wow, given what their website looks like and their claims I’m shocked that they actually had a functional prototype 4 years ago.[0]

On the one hand I’m bummed that I haven’t seen it in person, and on the other I’m so very glad it isn’t a popular technology (yet).

I’m really curious to see if anyone can find any details on how their technology works; I’m struggling to think of any better solutions than having tens of thousands of oled screens and lenses to map each pixel on the smaller screen to a pixel and an angle on the larger screen as a whole.

0: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ptXTSuMkuvA

Weirdly appropriate company name. Imagine if the minds behind this were used for making people's lives better instead blasting them with more effective ads.

I don't want every window I walk by blasting ads at me.

This is dystopic.

It is to fight terrorism. Think about the children. /s

But we're already there. Depending on where you are of course, but most main streets already do. Times Square has been (in)famous for it for decades.

I don't understand why people in this thread are panicking about living in an ad ridden dystopia when they already do.

Doesn't have to get even worse than it already is. I don't live on times square and prefer to keep it that way. I will not roll over and take it just because it's not that much worse.

I am in a playground right now with zero ads in sight. There is still plenty of room for explotation.

Times Square is a thing. At one point, people visited amusement parks to look at the light bulbs. In some way the first movers might be cute.

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