Azumo Extends Beyond Reflective LCD Into Nano Films That Light Up As Transparent Displays
February 27, 2024 by Dave Haynes
A company that has been pursuing the idea of reflective technology for big LCD displays has come up with a super-thin film that lights up to show crisp visuals and could be applied and made active on surfaces like glass and woodgrain veneers.
The Chicago-based display firm Azumo is mainly known for its low-power, sunlight-readable, reflective “LCD 2.0” technology that it says can reduce LCD power consumption by as much as 10x.
But at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, Azumo has debuted what it calls Nano-Thin Film Illumination (Nano-TFI), demonstrating a large transparent glass keyboard. It doesn’t say, but this presumably at Lenovo’s MWC stand.
From PR:
This breakthrough approach enables consumer device designers to create illuminated high resolution images and enhance smart surface applications with touch sensors, branding, decorative patterning and more on various materials such as glass, plastics, wood grain veneer, and carbon fiber.
Unlike other techniques that require backlighting through material to create images, Azumo’s 50um film resides on the “A” surface, remaining invisible until lit up. By eliminating the need for bulky backlighting or other visible lighting elements, Nano-TFI enables thin and flexible high-resolution images without compromising on design or functionality. For consumer device designers, this opens the world for futuristic gadgets. Imagine the illumination of a company’s logo on a mouse pad, or buttons that only appear on your speaker when needed. Nano-TFI not only enhances the aesthetics of consumer devices but also drives colorful branding that helps differentiate products in the market.
Utilizing a patented light bar and flexible light guide film system, Nano-TFI has proven to illuminate large area consumer device surfaces fully and uniformly. The colorful 17.3” Lenovo transparent glass keyboard was illuminated with just 2 RGB LED arrays, demonstrating the efficiency and energy-saving capabilities of Azumo’s technology.
Not a lot of detail in the PR, but in the other hand, if there was it would probably be 20 miles over my head. It would seem to play to Corning’s idea of Days Made Of Glass – a video series from more than a decade that suggested a future in which many surfaces would become useful displays.
I like the notion floated by Azumo about speaker controls that are only there when a sensor picks up the presence of someone and triggers that UX. You could imagine how that could apply to all kinds of things.
Cool… One step closer to “Minority Report!”
Japan Display develops this transparent TFT technology for years, they named it Raelclear.