smart glass

Zeiss is heading to CES next week to show off its Multifunctional Smart Glass tech, which can float "holographic" and AR content on any glass surface for such things as HUDs, 3D buttons, and even a transparent videocam in the middle of a display.

Windows are pretty basic necessities for letting in light and heat, but you don’t always want both at once. Now engineers at North Carolina State University have developed a new material that allows windows to easily switch between three modes.

​There are already "smart glass" windows that can be tinted to block the sun's hot rays, thus reducing the need to run air-conditioning systems. Such systems still require electricity, however. Now, scientists have developed a coating that allows existing glass to become smart … no power required.

Imagine if your car's windshield glass could turn from being clear to reflective, when the car was parked in the hot sun. Well, such things may soon be possible, thanks to a new liquid-activated "smart glass" being developed at the University of Delaware.

With blinds in front of our windows, we usually have to choose between light and privacy, but “smart glass" can toggle its opacity as needed. Now a University of Pittsburgh team has developed a new type of glass that can switch between hazy and clear in seconds – just add water.

Electrochromic glass that switches from translucent to transparent and vice versa is currently limited to a blue tint. That's set to change with a new manufacturing technique that increases the color options on offer, while also speeding up the switching process by almost 10 times.

Companies are experimenting with ways to balance glass' ability to let light in with the need for a little privacy. Now, Kinestral has unveiled a new system of smart-tinting glass called Halio, which can be adjusted manually or set up to switch automatically.

​Imagine if instead of installing curtains or blinds, you could simply adjust the opacity of the glass in your windows. Well, that's how smart windows work. Researchers at Harvard University have now developed one of their own, which they say is simpler and cheaper than what's come before.​

As the mechanical iris lens in a normal camera is far too large and bulky to incorporate in smartphones and other compact mobile devices, a team of researchers has developed a non-mechanical, "smart glass" iris that may bring much greater image quality to future smartphones.

Researchers at Berkeley Labs have produced a "smart" glass coating that can be selectively controlled to block visible light, heat-producing near-infrared (NIR) light or both by applying a small electrical charge to it.