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Is Xiaomi's transparent TV the biggest design fail ever? (archive)
Many strange things have happened in 2020, so it's probably the perfect year for Chinese tech company Xiaomi to announce the world's first completely transparent TV. And if you're wondering that the point of it is, we're here to tell you that you're not alone.
Available in China from from 16 August, the snappily named Xiaomi Mi TV LUX OLED Transparent Edition will cost ¥49,999 ($7,200/£5,500), offering "an ultra-immersive viewing experience" in which "images seem to be suspended in the air". That is, we assume, as long as your TV isn't positioned against a wall.
[...] In a blog post on its website (adorned with several images of women in extravagant ballgowns standing behind transparent TVs, because why not?), Xiaomi calls the TV "a new way to consume visual content previously only seen in science fiction films". Unlike traditional TVs, the Mi TV LUX Transparent Edition "creatively embeds all the processing units in its base stand". The TV sports a 55-inch OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and 150000:1 static contrast ratio.
Get your transparent APNGs ready.
Also at The Verge.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Unixnut on Sunday August 16 2020, @02:10PM (1 child)
To be fair, they claim it as "Art" in TFA, so I presume they are aware that this is not a practical substitute for a normal TV.
As for uses, the first that sticks out in my mind is as advertising or some kind of display. You can show objects as "floating in mid air" in lobby's or store fronts.
Beyond that, I guess some kind of overlay on a scene behind it, or possibly teleconferencing, so the persons background matches the background of your room, so it looks more like they are present. If they can make it flex a bit, then in theory they could put it on windscreens on vehicles to give a full HUD overlay system.
Fun fact, you used to be able to do something similar with computer LCD displays. If you removed the rear CCFL and diffuser, the LCD itself would be almost fully transparent, but would otherwise work. So you got a full gamut of colour, but all blacks were transparent. I used it attached to a window to display the time, the days weather forecast, and some other info I was interested in knowing.
This is different: Being OLED, it will emit light, and so not need a bright background to work. I would not be so interested in a full size TV, but if they made a display say 10" diagonal, I would get one, to re-make the above with new tech.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday August 17 2020, @02:23AM
A final thing, it's also a great technology demonstrator for Xiaomi. This is getting them international news coverage and lots of buzz, it's a great prestige project for them. So no, it's not a design fail, it's the same limited-edition X special that other companies do, and an excellent piece of marketing.