Nanolumens Expands Beyond LED To Projection Surfaces

April 29, 2015 by Dave Haynes

nanoclear_TD_bar

It seems like all the display guys are branching out lately. First it was software and now display types.

You may think of Atlanta-based NanoLumens as a company squarely in the business of making lightweight, skinny and modular LED displays, but now they’ve announced a clear transparent surface you’d liken to 3M’s Vikuiti film surfaces.

The NanoClear is a fully transparent display that’s designed to suspend and kinda float in rooms that don’t have to fight a lot of ambient light. Think bars, casinos and museums.

It uses nano-optical particle diffusion, and if you don’t know what that is, you’re just stupid.

OK, I always wanted to type that. I am among the stupid mere mortals who have no idea what nano-optical particle diffusion is or does. Some engineer could probably talk about it until I slipped into a psychogenic fugue state, but I’ll pass.

Anyway, the result is an evidently clear display using a proprietary (and patented) polycarbonate substrate that gets projected on using a laser projector. It can be cut and shaped anyway you want, and like other odd-shaped projection surfaces, the creative can be masked and produced to match up.

“NanoLumens has always been unique in its ability to provide customers with visual solutions in any size, shape or curvature — solutions that in every respect live up to their imagination,” says NanoLumens Vice President of Marketing and Business Development Nate Remmes, in a press release. “However, the introduction of our transparent visualization technology takes the company to the next level of innovation. We’re proud to be one of the first companies to commercialize this industry-changing technology, and provide exceptional solutions to customers around the world.”

This is not Photoshopped vapor-ware (seen that movie). The displays are already up and running at places like TD Garden in Boston, where the Bruins and Celtics are not playing (out of playoffs). In the pic above, the clear displays are those banners suspended from the bar ceiling, projected on from behind and above. I’d imagine you could some fun things with all those units sync’d.

Interesting move. We have Samsung buying an LED company (Yesco). Christie and Planar doing tight pixel LED. And now Nano doing projection surfaces.

And of course all the display guys, and their sisters, doing software CMS platforms.

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