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Technology

Multimedia Windowpanes 225

Posted by michael from the through-the-looking-glass dept.
prostoalex writes "Washington Post talks about recent innovations in the world of windows (yes, lowercase). A Minnesota company is offering windows that double as entertainment centers, being used as projection screens for home entertainment systems and DVD players. A Yale professor is quoted to be excited about new product: 'One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun''."
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Multimedia Windowpanes

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  • I suggest you give a pass on these comments.

  • Great Idea... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by scot4875 ( 542869 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:20PM (#5130647) Homepage
    Great idea, until someone puts a baseball through your living room Window.

    --Jeremy

    • Re:Great Idea... (Score:5, Funny)

      by spike hay ( 534165 ) <{blu_ice} {at} {violate.me.uk}> on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:52PM (#5130896) Homepage
      I've been hearing lately that this version of windows has a exploit in which a hacker can use a tool called "crowbar" to compromise security. This may be fixed in upcoming patches.

    • Glass is fiarly strong (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bluGill ( 862 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @09:00PM (#5131485)

      That comment isn't as intelligent as it sounds. Modern tempered glass doesn't breaky very easially, and can stand up to baseballs. And that is assuming it is even glass, some windows are actually plastic, which can be bullet proof! Patio doors wouldn't be possible without that. (Or at least not as most houses have them with a patio door installed, but no deck outside since a kid could break through regular glass and fall several floors) Modern windows are a lot more complex than glass in a frame. Fortunatly they work just like the old type, just better.

      I'm not trying to imply that you can't break this glass, because you can. However you can beat a patio door with a sledge hammer and not be sure of it breaking.

  • hmm. (Score:5, Funny)

    by garcia ( 6573 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:20PM (#5130649)
    now I can pretend those videos of my naked nextdoor neighbor are live...

  • They used to have to look in the windows (Score:5, Funny)

    by ShawnDoc ( 572959 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:21PM (#5130653) Homepage
    Great, now my who neighborhood will know the type of porn I like to watch.

    At least before they had to sneak over to look in the windows, now they just have to look at the windows.

  • Microsoft lawyers hit them with a cease and desist, it definately dilutes the trademark if people use windows as an entertainment device.

  • How long until... (Score:5, Funny)

    by delphin42 ( 556929 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:21PM (#5130663) Homepage
    This technology makes it into eyeglasses or contact lenses ?!?

    I'd love to be sitting in my cube at work watching Office Space on my contact lenses!

    • Re:How long until... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by groman ( 535485 )
      In all seriousness, human eyes can't focus that close. Does anybody know of a technology that would allow to display images on a contact lens with a focal point a few feet into the air in front of said contact lens? Something like an LCD hologram or something? I'd be curious to know if that is possible at all.
      • Check out the Time Window 2000 [infoeyetech.com]. Way cool tech
      • The wearable computing community has had this for ages. Check out Dod Pap's website, he makes some pretty sweet eyewear:

        http://aeinnovations.com/content.php?menu=906&pa ge _id=29
        • Whoops, I just noticed that the poster I replied to was talking specifically about contact lenses, not eyeglasses, as the parent poster had mentioned.

          I wouldn't think there's any way to actually use the lenses themselves to generate the image. Even if you could do it, you'd either need a wire going to the lense, which could damage your eye, or all of the gadgetry, plus some sort of high bandwidth wireless connectivity, in the lens itself. I don't think miniaturization's there, quite yet.

          Of course, you can siply project the image right onto your eye, whether or not you're wearing contacts, with something like this (which is actually what Don makes his displays with):

          http://www.tekgear.com/product.cfm?sku=0001
    • How long until...This technology makes it into eyeglasses or contact lenses ?!?


      As long as it takes for advertisers to patent contact lenses as a vehicle for ad delivery. I, for one, can't wait to be told what to buy by little animated sprites and has-been celebrities. Finally, give the hallucinations a little competition for my attention.

    • ...eyeglasses or contact lenses ?!?

      Let's see:
      When the current is on, the window is clear. But flip a switch to turn the current off and the glass goes opaque, allowing it to be used as a projection screen for watching television or DVDs.

      A low tech work around has been available for years. Just don't get the scratch resistant coating on your lenses, treat them like crap and they'll soon be scratched enough to be opaque. After that it's simply a matter of pointing a projection system at them.

      An LCD window/monitor... now that would kick ass.

    • Actually there was a pair of sunglasses I saw a few years ago that acutally had a small camera builtin to the corner of the frame. It actually beamed a picture right into your eye. You walk around seeing a television screen infront of you at all times.
    • you can see the real thing.

      Sorry, have to go finish these TPS reports.

  • Bidirectional (Score:1, Insightful)

    by SUB7IME ( 604466 )
    Does this mean that my neighbors will be able to see what I'm watching? This will invariably lead to copyright violation if somebody tries to watch a movie - there will be no such thing as a "private screening." Plus, if the window is big enough, one's parents will know that one is watching porn before they even enter the driveway.

  • Back to the 80's (Score:5, Funny)

    by MongooseCN ( 139203 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:23PM (#5130677) Homepage
    'One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'

    Wow, so they invented a back to the 80's time machine!

  • Top Gun? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Skyshadow ( 508 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:24PM (#5130682) Homepage
    Tom Cruise in Top Gun? Where did they did up this professor? 1986?

    Anyhow, I have a really hard time seeing this going anywhere. The problem with any sort of serious home automation or nifty built-in gadgets is that ten years down the line they're either a tangle of useless, unsupported wires and circuit boards from extint companies or laughably outdated (or both). I remember seeing a new item about a guy who sued Bob Vila and "This Old House" for pushing him to install a computer-heavy home control system for everything from the heat to the garage door a few years back -- the company tanked and now he has to rip the malfunctioning POS out and put in new stuff (which is obviously expensive).

    So, I'll pass. Besides, the last thing I need is an incentive to get even less daylight.

    • Re:Top Gun? (Score:5, Funny)

      by GOD_ALMIGHTY ( 17678 ) <curt DOT johnson AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:33PM (#5130762) Homepage
      Actually it really just tells us about our Yale Professor here, as Quentin Tarantino pointed out in the movie 'Sleep With Me':

      <snip>
      No, I don't, fucking boy meets girl, I don't give a shit about that. Fuck boy meets girl, fuck motorcycle movie. No, what is really being said? What's really being said, that's what you're talking about. 'Cause the whole idea, man, is subversion. You want subversion on a massive level. You know what one of the greatest fucking scripts ever written in the history of Hollywood is? Top Gun.

      [Duane: Oh, come on.]

      Top Gun is fucking great. What is Top Gun? You think it's a story about a bunch of fighter pilots.

      [Duane: It's about a bunch of guys waving their dicks around.]

      It is a story about a man's struggle with his own homosexuality. It is! That is what Top Gun is about, man.

      You've got Maverick, all right? He's on the edge, man. He's right on the fucking line, all right? And you've got Iceman, and all his crew. They're gay, they represent the gay man, all right? And they're saying, go, go the gay way, go the gay way. He could go both ways.

      [Duane: What about Kelly McGillis?]

      Kelly McGillis, she's heterosexuality. She's saying: no, no, no, no, no, no, go the normal way, play by the rules, go the normal way. They're saying no, go the gay way, be the gay way, go for the gay way, all right? That is what's going on throughout that whole movie...

      He goes to her house, all right? It looks like they're going to have sex, you know, they're just kind of sitting back, he's takin' a shower and everything. They don't have sex. He gets on the motorcycle, drives away. She's like, "What the fuck, what the fuck is going on here?" Next scene, next scene you see her, she's in the elevator, she is dressed like a guy. She's got the cap on, she's got the aviator glasses, she's wearing the same jacket that the Iceman wears. She is, okay, this is how I gotta get this guy, this guy's going towards the gay way, I gotta bring him back, I gotta bring him back from the gay way, so I'm do that through subterfuge, I'm gonna dress like a man. All right? That is how she approaches it.

      Okay, now let me just ask you--I'm gonna digress for two seconds here. I met this girl Amy here, she's like floating around here and everything. Now, she just got divorced, right?...

      All right, but the REAL ending of the movie is when they fight the MIGs at the end, all right? Because he has passed over into the gay way. They are this gay fighting fucking force, all right? And they're beating the Russians, the gays are beating the Russians. And it's over, and they fucking land, and Iceman's been trying to get Maverick the entire time, and finally, he's got him, all right? And what is the last fucking line that they have together? They're all hugging and kissing and happy with each other, and Ice comes up to Maverick, and he says, "Man, you can ride my tail, anytime!" And what does Maverick say? "You can ride mine!" Swordfight! Swordfight! Fuckin' A, man!
      </snip>

      IMNSHO, this is Quentin's finest performance ever, better than his role in Pulp Fiction
      • Thanks for this post. It reminded me how much I love Quentin Tarantino.
    • My thought was "Top Gun? How about watching Total Recall [imdb.com] , a movie with picture-frame high-definition screens, on a picture-frame high-definition screen?"

      Yep, professors should leave the hip references to us (although TR was a 1990 flick...)

  • So what.... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Fazlazen ( 626923 )
    ...does this look like from the outside? Can anyone who's outside your house see what you're watching? I don't see what the real benefit of this is, other than the "gee whiz!" factor. Not to mention what happens when your kids playing catch in the house break your window *and* TV at the same time!

    - Faz

    • Re:So what.... (Score:5, Funny)

      by orthogonal ( 588627 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:52PM (#5130894) Journal
      So what.... ...does this look like from the outside?

      That's the thing. Most slashdotters will never know.

      Hell, they'll never even know what "outside" looks like.

      --
      But in my Mom's basement, I'm an arch-wizard.
    • according to the article... (subtle hint there!)

      - they main motivation was interior decorating. They said the TV is in conflict with the fireplace, which is in conflict with the windows. It's hard to make all 3 the focus of the room. With this, you can make the windows do all 3 (if you've got that 'fireplace video')

      - It's just a projection screen. Yeah, it costs a whole lot more than a regular window (it's "for homes > $1.5 Million"), but it's not like it's a huge flat-panel display. I bet a good runco projector will cost more than the screen.

  • your window that is! To stop you looking out at anything that might be entertaining, only Windows(tm)can be used for that pupose.
  • This of all the really fun pranks you could pull on people. Or, how cool would it be to put fish tank screen saver on all the windows in your living room.

  • Optimal Performance (Score:5, Interesting)

    by reddfoxx ( 534534 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:27PM (#5130712) Homepage
    I'm just kinda wondering what the optimal performance conditions are for this product?

    My guess is that the light has to be greater on the inside than on the outside, much like seeing a reflection using a mirror. Also there is the problem of temperature. Most electronics don't particularly enjoy being used at extreme temps. I'm also guessing that this thing has some type of current running through it causing an extreme temp change in the glass.

    So how long until the first "projection window" explodes during the winter?
    • Here's some info [toolbase.org] on Electrochromic Windows in general (the projection window seems to be a particular application of this).

      However, according to the site cited above,
      Electrochromic technologies are available for license to manufacturers. There are currently no U.S. manufacturers that are producing a true electrochromic window. Liquid crystal "privacy" glazing is available in the United States, for residential use.


      I wants me a window with an opaque switch, I wants it, my precious! Not only is this so much more conveneent that blinds, I imagine it would be easily controlled by the PC.
    • So how long until the first "projection window" explodes during the winter?

      No no, you've got it all wrong. That's the 3D projectile ^H^H^H^H^H^H projection feature. All the new screens will have it!

  • Trademarks and MS (Score:1, Redundant)

    by jonsmirl ( 114798 )
    I can't wait for the trademark lawsuit on this one:
    Anderson Windows vs Microsoft Windows.

  • Think of the shame (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Wee ( 17189 )
    Think of the shame in your neighbor knowing you like Tom Cruise movies. No thanks.

    Maybe if they could just darken completely so you wouldn't have to see your neighors, yeah, I'd buy (plain old polarizing film, that is). Or maybe if they could give houses in California a view of something besides the side of the neighbor's house 8 feet away it would work. If they could just maybe make the house next door even 20 feet away it would sell.

    -B

  • And when you lose power... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rorschach1 ( 174480 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:29PM (#5130723) Homepage
    You don't even have sunlight. That's right, the windows are opaque when there ISN'T a current flowing through them! Better have an UPS on your window or it's going to get really dark when the power goes out.

  • I'd rather look at my neighbours yard than "top gun". Come to think of it, I'd rather watch paint dry than "top gun". But sure, it's a nifty idea to put those large flat surfaces to some use rather than having to empty out a part of a wall for a projection tv. As an added bonus, the couch and chairs will be facing the windows with a view outside rather than a dingy corner of the room with a tv.

  • If the power goes out, you loose the electical current in the glass which keeps it clear. If the power goes out, you have a major problem.

  • What's really awesome about this development is that you can now get rid of all that pesky natural light that windows allow into your house and replace it with enriching programs such as Jerry Springer and Elimidate and ESPN Classic and the Cartoon Network!

    Do they have a skylight version for my bedroom?

  • It works both ways (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:29PM (#5130729)
    One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'

    This is a projection screen between the panes of glass, so one minute you neighbor's watching you sitting in your living room, and the next minute he's watching a mirror image of Top Gun

    Won't the glass of the window create a glare problem? The wall beside the window probably makes a much better projection screen.

    Jason
    ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]

    • Re:It works both ways (Score:5, Informative)

      by Acidic_Diarrhea ( 641390 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:32PM (#5130756) Homepage Journal
      To answer quite simply, no. I've actually seen this demonstrated in use and the other side of the window does not show the mirror image of what is playing. I'm not exactly sure how they are doing it but before the movie started, it was a clear window. Then after it started, they spun it around so you could see the back and it was a black pane. The movie doesn't show on the outside. Again, I'd love to know how they do it but I know that it does it.
  • Why on Earth(TM) would the MPAA allow you to let everyone in your neighborhood watch the movie you're watching now? They better give out parrots and eyepatchs with these windows, cuz now you're a pirate. Yeah, and the pr0n references everyone else is making also hold up quite nicely. Although you could use it like a screensaver, instead of closing you're blind, put the "we're eating dinner", we're watching tv", or "we're playing billiards" movie on the windows when naughty time comes around. No peeping toms, since they can only see what you want them to see. Although, now they'll prolly flock to watch The Simpons on your widescreen window.
  • I can't wait to see the public indecency laws coming from this.

    "I was watching pr0n in the privacy of my own home." - porn viewer

    "My 13 yr old could see through your flimsy window shade" - mom

    "You showed porn to your neighbors! How dare you violate the terms of service of your pay-per-view purchase" - cable company

  • gay porn? (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by outsider007 ( 115534 )
    and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'

    uh oh, somebody just showed their true colors.

  • Window as a projection screen? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by will592 ( 551704 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @07:31PM (#5130742)
    Why not just have a projection screen lower itself in front of the window? Is there really a problem this technology is trying to solve? If you have to have a video projection system anyways, why wouldn't you want a high quality projection screen who watch the video on? And build in the wall gimmicky speakers? I would think that people willing to spend this kind of money would rather have high end speakers.

    Chris

    • Yes, thank you! I've been shaking my head the whole time. I mean, a retractable screen is so much less stupid than this window! I mean, you pull something over the window to stop light from passing through, and then you pull down the screen. You don't even need to be ultra-rich to do it (if you are, you can have all this automatized). The picture quality will surely be better because you are projecting on a proper screen, your neighbors won't see what you're watching, it's backwards compatible with all windows and future projectors, and you won't see glare and the stupid window frames!

      I bet you this company makes computer-controlled auto-ass-wiping toilets, targeted at the same neuvo-riche customers. I just hope they don't run Windows...

      • Anyone remember the window projection screen in "Back to the Future II"? It was in the alternate 1985 at Marty McFly's future Hilldale home:

        GRANDMA LORRAINE: I can't believe this window is
        still broken.

        (She channel surfs through an Eastern garden,
        a sunset, New York nightscape, etc.)

        MARLENE: Well, when the scene screen repairman
        called Daddy a chicken, Daddy threw him out of
        the house and now we can't get anybody to fix it.

        GRANDMA LORRAINE: Look how worn out this thing is!

        (She lifts up the screen and reveals the window
        behind, whose only view is the dilapidated brick
        wall inches away.)

        -Mr. Fusion
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • "Homeowners want the conveniences and benefits of new technologies, but they don't want them to be so invasive or ubiquitous in their homes," said Phil Donaldson, senior vice president of product development for Andersen.

      If you're asking what the problem is that they're trying to address, that quote tells you.

      You're totally right, and the article describes this as a prototype without even an established price. Obviously for the money, whatever it may be, there are much better systems out there -- but that's when you follow the "building a shrine to your TV" model that we're all living with. Take a look around: people build whole "home theater" rooms onto their houses for this stuff, which is ridiculous. The basic M.O. here, as described in that quote from the Andersen guy, is to make the technology fit into your life better, rather that making you suffer with a hardly-really-hidden 42" screen in a colossal entertainment center around which the furniture must make its obseisance.

      And yes, of course for the money you could build a nice low-profile drop-down screen. Somehow as a design choice, that wouldn't have the magic "zing" of the room going dark and the picture window turning into a screen in an instant. So nope -- not rational. (Would you want the room to darken every time you watched the 6 pm news anyway?) But it's a design approach I wouldn't mind seeing more of. And the Anderson guy who said that above has a real clue what he's trying to do, anyway.

  • I can't wait until the advertising trolls find out about this one.. remember eating at a nice restaurant, looking out the window at all the people walking by? Well now the restaurant owner can just get paid to show commercials instead! And if you don't look, well, that's like stealing.
  • Wouldn't it be easier to just set up a projection screen? a less expensive and reliable solution I'm assuming.
  • ...will I get to see the Blue Sky Of Death?
  • The whole window / tv screen thing has been a staple of futuristic anime for a while now, as well as a lot of standard sci-fi, if I'm not mistaken.

    It is definitely more of a "Japanese" techology in the sense that it combines the functions of two things, saving both space and money. A boon for all of us who are cramped into tiny one-bedroom apartments.
  • Total Recall had these type of windows. Uber geeky, I am please to see that Reality catching up with Sci-Fi once more.
  • Yet another excuse for the MPAA to raid my house, take all my possessions, and sue me into non-existence:

    playing of movies in a public forum without express written consent and without royalty.

    I better lube up for this one!
  • /.ers who have eyeglasses that get darker when you go outside.

    Glasses like that are great, since they block the view of all the chicks you won't be having sex with when you tell them about watching 'Top Gun' on your window at home, then making a joke about how the neighborhood kid crashed your 'windows' with his softball.

    Don't forget to snort repeatedly!

  • So now your neihbors know what movie your watching or better yet the MPAA will come knocking at your door saying that you are illegaly distributing movies.
  • Wouldn't it be a whole lot cheaper to just pull down a "traditional" screen as a shade over the window?

  • Frank just got a 2000" TV.
  • will I have to take the tin foil off?
  • It sounds too much like Window pains.

  • In a world without walls and fences...

    ... who needs windows and gates?

  • Better yet, immagine this. One minute a burgalar is looking through the window into my empty living room, the next he's seeing an image of someone running towards him with a shotgun.
  • If memory serves me right, it was an unpleasant afternoon at AT&T when I had a senior VP personally rip me a new one over my use of several outside windows as a whiteboard for some rather mundane technical designs. It wasn't anything proprietary and the window faced the water, but he really was right. I was being flippant and obnoxious, and it just looks bad from an informaion security perspective.

    Now imagine some poor sot who forgets to hit the "Outside window opaque" button, and projects sensitive data in a powerpoint presentation using a media-window. Even if such mistakes were prevented by a modicum of idiot-proofing, I can imagine a whole host of methods to read the data off of a media-window from many miles away. Forget bouncing a laser off the window to collect the vibrations & derive the conversations occuring therein -- I bet one could derive the entire display image by measuring thermal deflection of the outside display pane. And that's just the start.

    The problem I see is this: while most companies' "super-secret" proprietary data really isn't worth a hill of french-roasted beans, they *think* it's worthy of the highest levels of TEMPEST protection. And any organization that actually has sensitive data would laugh this right off the vendor-presentation schedule. You'll never sell it to business or government, so the sales volumes will never bring the price down to where anyone but the hyper-techno-elite can afford it. And in the homes of the hyper-techno-elite, they just might like to control the display and ambient natural light separately.

    Jon
  • From the article:

    "He predicted the new multimedia windows will end up only in houses priced at $1.5 million and higher."

    From 1943:

    "I think there's a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson
  • They already did this in most Sci-Fi movies. Back to the Future II did it best(most realistic), where the darned thing never worked properly.

    The real question is, what will they call this technology, seeing as how Microsoft will throw a fit at the obvious answer.
  • Get a nice, hi-res picture out the window, then add in a video of a big truck driving off the road and straight for the camera.

    Put up the static image, call your victim into the room for some unrelated reason and then watch the look on their face.

    You would, of course, also need appropriate sound effects -- and a well planned escape route.

  • And two lucky winners can watch Tom cruise in their window without owning this product.

  • Is it efficient? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Mike McTernan ( 260224 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @08:10PM (#5131024)

    When the current is on, the window is clear. But flip a switch to turn the current off and the glass goes opaque

    Hmmm, shame it isn't the otherway around - sounds like it's going to waste lots of juice given that the window is probably going to be in 'clear' mode 99% of the time.

  • we can create a nation wide system to warn birds they are about to fly into a transparent yet unforgivingly solid object.

  • Total Recall (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Vandil X ( 636030 )
    Remember Arnold's house at the start of Total Recall? They lived in what was essentially a window-less house. Yet the house had many window-like projection panes that displayed realistic outdoor scenery with picture-in-picture tv news, etc.

    That's probably what these people are aiming for.

  • Old Tech, new (but in hindsight, obvious) use. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by spun ( 1352 ) <loverevolutionary&yahoo,com> on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @08:20PM (#5131099) Journal
    The technology is similar to LCD displays, and has been around for years. I could have bought windows like this ten years ago and put a projection TV in front of them. The side windows as speakers, that's new. I mean, electrostatic speakers are old, but I'm pretty sure using glass in them is new.

    For those that haven't read the article, the windows turn opaque white when no current is running throught them. They make a perfect big white screen to shine a projector on. They aren't making a huge LCD monitor into a window and displaying a picture by shining light through it, they are projecting a picture onto it.
  • and there are certain concessions I have to make. I don't want the neighbourhood to know that I'm watching 'The Horse Whisperer'.

    p.s Apologies for being a married /.er
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • A Minnesota company is...

    Ya sure ya betcha! =P

  • Inside windows, too. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kbeer ( 21963 ) <slashdot@@@kenbeer...info> on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @08:27PM (#5131166)
    This technology has been around for a while now, but it's very expensive. The use is not for windows that face outside, but for inner windows.

    I've heard of corporate conference rooms that use windows like this. When the meeting becomes "closed door" all of the windows can be frosted.

    I live in a small apartment, but it seems bigger than it is because of many internal windows between rooms. The problem is privacy. Shades and blinds are ugly. Instant frosting is what I've been looking for. If the prices come down, I'll buy.
  • Despite the comments made at the end of the referenced article. Self Cleaning Windows are already available [activglass.com].

  • Cool for privacy, if you conserve energy... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DA_MAN_DA_MYTH ( 182037 ) on Tuesday January 21, 2003 @09:22PM (#5131659) Homepage Journal
    otherwise wouldn't that window run up your electricity bill, when it acts like a regular window?
  • This is good, but why not just have a wall-sized screen that had a window. Or that projected an image from outside.

    Also, why not have small sohpisticated seashell-shapped microphones that fit in your ears for accurate simulation of sound and always-on broadcasting?

    And could I order a mechanical hound with that? And some soylent green?
  • 'that double as an *advertisment* centre'?

  • I've been seeing stories about this technology since the early 90s, in Popular Science and similar. It hasn't taken off yet.
  • When the current is on, the window is clear. But flip a switch to turn the current off and the glass goes opaque, allowing it to be used as a projection screen for watching television or DVDs. The flanking casement windows become the speakers.

    Seems to me this sort of thing would be a good replacement for blinds if you're into the 'wow' factor or have some reason to want a particular room to be very dark some of the time when its daylight out. They haven't invented a translucent TV as the /. article implies. Oh, and I do hereby coin the phrase "turn [on|off] the windows". Apparently the projector is included with the package.

    Windows that switch from transparent to opaque were introduced years ago by several window manufacturers, but they never caught on with consumers.

    So apparently what these people have done is nail two things together that have never been nailed together before.
  • Slow glass [flyingturkeys.com] of the 17 year variety to be precise if it allows you to view classic 1986 entertainment. That stuff is highly sought after.
  • Using it as a projection screen is kind of dumb... (As many others have mentioned, why not just put a retractable screen in front of the window? A much cheaper alternative, even if you insist on recessing it into the ceiling or otherwise making it "match" your other stuff. ) However, this would be a nice alternative to blinds. Horizontal and vertical blinds are way too leaky for my taste, and where are you going to find an opaque shade to cover a glass door or six-foot window? I like the idea of flipping a switch and turning the entire window opaque.

    They are also unveiling new cordless within-the-window shades. These are blinds and shades that fit between the glass that can be lowered and raised without cords hanging down the sides of the windows. The Iowa-based company is already selling within-the-window shades with pull cords.

    Um...what exactly is the point of this? Besides making it a pain in the arse to fix or replace the blinds when they break or get stuck, that is? And how do they work without cords? Are they electric? One more thing to break that you have to take the entire window apart to fix, then...

    Andersen is also unveiling an "invisible insect screen" at the show, a window screen the company says is visible only from up close.

    Pella will show new retractable screens for patio doors, in which the screens roll into the frame of a sliding door when not in use. The company already sells retractable screens for windows.

    Just don't use the invisible insect screen on a patio door...by the time you're close enough to see it, your tray of drinks has already encountered it and succumbed to the laws of physics by being knocked out of your hands... ;)

    As for a retractable screen...um...I have one of those already...it's called a sliding screen door. When I don't want it blocking the doorway, I slide it over so it's behind the solid part of the patio door. How is this retractable thing any different, I wonder?

    One innovation that buyers would really go for, manufacturers say, is a true self-cleaning window -- covered with a protective surface similar to a car wax.

    Wait...my windows aren't self-cleaning? Oops... Maybe I should open my blinds once in a while...
    On second thought, maybe not...ignorance is probably bliss in this case... ;)

    DennyK
  • 'One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun''

    I don't live next door to Tom Cruise, you insensitive clod!

  • And they do exist: http://www.pilkington.com/pilkington/International +Products/Activ/Activ+Banner.htm

    Not having to clean the windows would be very nice IMHO :)

  • Is it me, or are a lot of comments on here insinuating that the window itself is the television? If you people read the article:
    When the current is on, the window is clear. But flip a switch to turn the current off and the glass goes opaque, allowing it to be used as a
    projection screen for watching television or DVDs.
    (emphasis mine)
    The window would be used simply as something that your video projector would produce an image on. If the glass breaks, so what? Your TV (tuner and other equipment) is/are still fine. Only the screen needs to be replaced. Just turn the projector at an empty wall then! Or get a pulldown screen or something. Your TV still works.

    The glass is NOT and LCD or any similar technology.
    • And another thing...

      This isn't really anything new. (And they actually state that in the article too.) A few years ago I went to the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland and they showed how this glass works. (And even when I saw it a few years ago, the display had already been up for a while.) They showed multiple ways of changing the screen from clear to opaque.

      There were 4 ways: touch sensitive (when you touch the window, it toggled clear/opaque), switch (simple ON/OFF, like a normal light switch), sound sensitive (you could clap your hands and the screen would toggle), and... hm. darn. can't really remember the 4th way. Maybe it changed depending on the light around it? (if there was enough light, it was opaque, otherwise it was clear? this way it could be used to help cool your home during the summers by keeping the sunlight out, but still allow you to see out of it in the mornings and evenings.)

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