Samsung targets retailers with Mirror and Transparent OLED panels

June 12, 2015

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Samsung's 55-inch Transparent OLED display at Retail Asia Expo 2015 in Hong Kong

Samsung's Transparent and Mirror OLED displays both integrate Intel's RealSense technology

Transparent and reflective displays mightlook cool, but in terms of the home, theirapplications are limited. However, bricks and mortar shops looking for sometechnological wizardry to get shoppers through the door are a different proposition. So itshould come as no surprise that Samsung chose this week's Retail Asia Expo 2015in Hong Kong to unveil the first commercial use of its Mirror and Transparent OLEDs.

Transparent and reflective displays aren'tnew, with Samsung rolling out the first mass produced transparent LCD panels in2011 and Philips' HomeLab R&D outfit unveiling its LCD Mirror TV in 2004, the latest evolution of which Philips still sells under its Reflex Mirror TV line, primarily targetedat hotels. But just like conventional TVs, reflective and transparent OLEDs promise superior performanceto their LCD forebears.

Samsung Display claims its Mirror OLEDpanel boasts a reflectance level of greater than 75 percent and outdoes thereflectance of competitor Mirror LCDs by at least 50 percent. It also offers color gamut of over 100 percent of NTSC compared to around 70 percent of NTSCfor Mirror LCDs, and a contrast ratio of over 100,000:1 compared to 4,000:1.Response rate is also faster at under 1 ms compared to 8 ms. Additionally, OLEDdoesn't require any ambient backlight as is the case with LCDs.

Similar benefits can be found withthe Transparent Display OLED, with a color gamut of 100 percent compared to 70percent of NTSC for transparent LCDs and transmittance levels of 45 percent compared to around 10percent. It also offers transparency levels of 40 percent, compared to the around15 percent of Samsung's transparent LCDs. The OLED panels also boastwider viewing angles.

So they both boast better specs, but whatcan retailers do with them? Well, Samsung has paired the Mirror OLED displaywith Intel's RealSense technology. This sees the inclusion of a front-facing camera forcapturing facial movements and tracking finger and hand movements, arear-facing camera that can scan and measure rooms and objects, and a snapshotcamera that allows a photo's background to be altered after the photo has beentaken.

These come together to enable the displayto create a "virtual fitting room" that allows customers tovirtually try on clothing, shoes and jewelry and see how they will look on them– at the expo, Samsung was showing a "virtual necklace" displaycreated for the Chow Sang Sang jewelry company. Samsung also envisages itsMirror Display replacing some traditional mirrors around the home at some pointin the future.

The Transparent Display will also integrateRealSense technology, enabling gesture and voice control of 3D-rotatableviewing systems in locations such as car dealerships. They could also serve as interactivesignage for public and transport information and in hotels and retailers.

Source: Samsung Display

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Darren Quick

Darren's love of technology started in primary school with a Nintendo Game & Watch Donkey Kong (still functioning) and a Commodore VIC 20 computer (not still functioning). In high school he upgraded to a 286 PC, and he's been following Moore's law ever since. This love of technology continues as Managing Editor of New Atlas.

2 comments

BZD June 12, 2015 05:16 PM

Seeing all the advances in technology around glass, displays, solar panels and so on makes me dream of the perfect windows for my house. I want them to: - be transparent and opaque or something in between whenever I need it. - when semi-transparent I want to control what colours are filtered out and the same goes for non-visible wave lengths. - Self cleaning due to the right coating. - Work as high res displays. - Maybe polarized so one window can display different things simultaneously, so the viewing angle determines which image you see. - Touch sensitive just like tablets. - Work as solar panels. - Unbreakable for safety. - Sound proof. - Super isolating (to keep out cold/heat). - Affordable.
All the technology is there already. Some in windows we do have in our houses and others still only in labs around the world, but the potential of combing some if not all those things is there. Just imagine :-)

ChenSun January 28, 2016 09:14 PM

They talk about this transparent many years, but never used in our life, why? Because it is not that good, even the samsung gear VR is borrowed from OCULUS power, even someone said AMOLED helped a lot, but I really doubt about that, their technology ability just let them to use pentile matrix, because they can't get same level of good saturation, same level of not deviation, so they need to use that technology, the life is short for amoled, even right now amoled is still had pixel dragging and vibration of pixel shift, it is brighter but it loses the true of color, the longer you look, the more it will lose color. AMOLED is more contrast than LCD, so I WOULD say the accurate of displaying color is not as good as LCD, it just looks" beautiful", samsung is always claim that, but is that really good? color gamut should be based on how much pixels you have,but samsung made another tricky thing here, amoled had back pixel to control, so samsung will brag their products like 8K, but did they have good control in back pixel? I doubt about that, if you have more pixels, the controlling of progress color, of course, will be more, but it doesn't mean anything of good displaying a video or pictures, it's just technology thing, I WOULD say it is not always technology, it is people's aesthetic deciding which products they choose, if samsung just make color within some brightness is same as others, but just make some brightness out of such as very bright, or very dark, out of these areas making more colors, it can also called more color gamut, but will it be seen as good display?? Samsung always make something to brag themselves. And the inclusion of a front-facing camera for capturing facial movements and tracking finger and hand movements, a rear-facing camera that can scan and measure rooms and objects,it is should be based and compatible with technology, the screen only do good when you use VR, that AMOLED may help feel less of dizzy, but samsung AMOLED is still had a lot of problems such as pixel shifting problems, dragging of pixels problems. every company can do"the inclusion of a front-facing camera for capturing facial movements and tracking finger and hand movements, a rear-facing camera that can scan and measure rooms and objects,"