It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between computer monitors, flat screen TVs and display panels, as they all use the same technology. The only real difference between them is the purpose for which they are used. Unless they’re also transparent, of course. It may be that someday we’ll all have transparent TV sets that can serve as a sort of windows between rooms when not in use, as a heads-up type display when used for computer type activities, and then of course as a television set when watching television, movies or other streamed content. But that day has not yet arrived, though we’ve moved a step closer with the announcement by Samsung of a 46 inch Display Panel.
For those not up on such things, a display panel is basically the same thing as a billboard or any board really used to convey a message, except that what’s displayed can be changed by a computer. One such example are the little screens now used in most WalMart stores to advertise certain products in-store. Display panels are used mostly for advertising, but they do have other purposes such as in airports to show arrivals and departures. The common factor seen in most current display panels is their similarity to regular flat panel displays. What’s new about the new display from Samsung, is the fact that you can see right through it, as if it were merely a regular old fashioned window. But because it has tiny circuitry embedded in the glass, it can be used as a display panel as well.
So, why is this better? Well, imagine you’re a store owner and you’d like to advertise the stuff sitting behind your front window. You could paste up signs, or set them inside next to the goods, or, you could simply zap full-color words, images, and even animated content directly to the glass pane between the customer and the goods, highlighting all the reasons they should buy them, all while they are continuously able to see that actual content through the un-obscured parts of the glass pane. Or imagine being able to see what’s in your refrigerator without opening the door, for example, while also reading date information off the pane on the door letting you know which foods are growing old.
So, it’s not just about vending trying to sell you stuff, it’s more a step into the future. Because of products like this, we will all very soon seen them begin to appear in products in our very own homes, and soon, it they will become as common to us as flat screen TVs are today.