New "invisible glass" ends glossy versus matte dilemma

Matthew DeCarlo

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There could be a day in the near future when you'll be able to purchase a laptop or smartphone without compromising on the visual quality of its display. Most viewing devices offer the choice between a glossy or matte panel. The former is said to look brighter and crisper, but reflects more light making the screen unusable in high intensity light. Meanwhile, matte displays reduce glare but sacrifice vibrancy and clarity.

Nippon Electric Glass Co Ltd claims its "invisible glass" solves the dilemma, however. Unveiled last week at the FPD International 2011 conference, the glass panel on demonstration wowed attendees. Writing for Tech-On, Satoshi Okubo said it was hard to see the substrate when standing right in front of it and onlookers had "surprised looks on their faces."

According to Nippon, about 92% of incoming light passes through standard glass panels, while the remaining 8% or so is reflected. However, the company's enchanted panels allow approximately 99.5% of light to pass through, reflecting only 0.5% of light while luminance reflectance is reduced to 0.1% or less. The feat is accomplished by covering both sides of the glass with a special anti-reflective film, which is applied in nanometer increments.

Besides improving the visual quality of displays in the consumer electronics segment, it's noted that the invisible glass would benefit other industries, such as boosting solar panel efficiency. Despite those possibilities, it's unclear when or if Nippon's technology will make it to a tablet near you.

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Before you start having sport at the expense of Matthew, If you look up the definition of Enchant, it actually means....
Definition of ENCHANT
transitive verb
1
: to influence by or as if by charms and incantation : bewitch

....nope, Matthew your screwed.:p:haha::wave:
 
I foresee something like this going "As Seen On TV" and for sale in every check-out line, soon.

I'd pay a lot to get rid of glare.
 
Hehe Matthew, I now have a mental image of Nippon's production line having a guy in a robe with a tome in hand casting incantations on the pieces of glass as they go past on the conveyor belt.
 
I don't think how could this be implemented into buildings or other infrastructure. The idea of Matte Glass is to decrease glare which save energy requirements to shine things brighter behind a display. Its kinda silly if this was used as a door or a window. just think how many people will just hit into an invisible wall? 0_o
 
I wonder if there is any technical reason why this technology couldn't be incorporated with gorilla glass. That would be a good result if it could/
 
Brock Samson said:
This technology could make some really cool aquariums.

Now that would be awesome! As long as the water was properly filtered you would really struggle to see where the water is and it would seem like the fish are floating in mid air!
 
If they start making this glass for home and commercial windows, women everywhere will be doing a Tippi Hedren impersonation.
 
They aren't going to use it as building windows. The windows on skyscrapers for sure are highly reflective on purpose. Reflect the heat, keep the cool in. This would just let all the heat in.
 
I've not seen anyone mention a scratch resistant factor.

If it scratches easy, I wouldn't care how invisible it is.

.
 
cliffordcooley said:
I've not seen anyone mention a scratch resistant factor.

If it scratches easy, I wouldn't care how invisible it is.

.
Get this man to the boardroom, STAT!

^^…
 
I've not seen anyone mention a scratch resistant factor.

I wonder if there is any technical reason why this technology couldn't be incorporated with gorilla glass. That would be a good result if it could/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_Glass

I guess that combining scratch resistant layers would mess up the anti-reflectivity of the technology. Lets hope that they have considered this and combined an element of anti-scratch/damage resistancy to this product.
 
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