The transparent display wars are yet to begin, since everyone is still prepping their devices, but that doesn’t stop the big guys like TDK and Samsung from throwing a little PR party every once in a while to let you know they’re still on the task. Today TDK released info on a new display, the UEL476, that’s a bit different from the rest.
Many of the transparent displays we’re seeing are AMOLEDs; this one is a “PMOLED,” utilizing a passive matrix instead of an active one. It’s similar to the way e-ink works, but still requires power to fluoresce, so don’t go expecting month-long battery life on these things. But for color e-readers the tech could result in some serious power savings.
Will we see this screen on any devices soon? I doubt it. It’s too small for most consumer devices, and AMOLED is more than likely the next generation of small displays. But TDK is a big company and this is just the tip of the iceberg — a photo-ready version of something that has a dozen other variants. We’ll hear about more soon enough.