Display Week: Japan Display Shows Transparent LCD As Variation On COVID Shields

May 17, 2021 by Dave Haynes

Japan Display or JDI – a specialty LCD display manufacturer owned by Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi – had some of the more impressive tech at Display Week that last time it was an in-person show.

This week, the company has a virtual stand at the event and I was intrigued by a link to a transparent display.

The demo video is streaming off the company’s own website, so it just hiccups, stalls, re-starts and so on (put it on Vimeo or something!!!). But I stuck with it, and it is a variant on transparent LCD that I guess uses LED edge lighting.

Transparent LCD is not new, at all, but the interesting business proposition here is that these displays could be used as an active version of the plastic shields that have gone up everywhere in the COVID age to protect people working in transaction and customer service counter jobs.

So instead of a plain old sheet of plastic, you’d have glass that can dynamically relay instructions or show on-demand information, like available seats at a ticket counter.

I don’t see this being adapted at your local Piggly Wiggly or WaWa store, but perhaps at venues like theater ticket counters. It beats shouting and trying to hear the person on the other side.

The demo also shows real time translation – kind of like a reverse teleprompter that shows views what the person just said.

JDI has a 4-inch version out and is showing a 12-inch. The specs are very prototype-y, with limited colors and brightness.

Leave a comment