LENOVO has proved rumors true and built a laptop with a transparent screen. The augmented reality machine is just a concept for now, but has an undeniable cool factor. The screen is 55 percent transparent when the pixels are off—switched on, they become increasingly opaque, but never completely. It has a modest 720p resolution, and the keyboard is a flat piece of glass with a projected layout. This looks good, but isn’t easy to type on. As for what can you use it for, Lenovo starts to run out of ideas, even suggesting that artists can place items behind it for reference. What’s needed is software that can make use of the interaction between screen and reality, something Apple managed on its Vision Pro headset. We don’t expect commercial hardware for a while yet. Transparent screens are something we can build now, and both Samsung and LG have demonstrated transparent televisions, which will be commercially available as expensive toys.
–CL