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Technology Science

The Promise Of Transparent Circuits 239

Posted by timothy from the heads-up-display dept.
aaron huslage writes "Research into Transparent Circuits has apparently come a long way lately. 'In a development that could accelerate architectural deployment of see-through surfaces with embedded circuitry, researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology have greatly improved the processing speed of transparent semiconductors, according to a report in the Nov. 25 issue of the journal Nature.' Imagine that your house is your computer!" Or a truly active windshield display in the car.
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The Promise Of Transparent Circuits More

The Promise Of Transparent Circuits

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  • errrr.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by lordkuri ( 514498 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:02PM (#11094293)
    Or a truly active windshield display in the car.

    yay! as if it's not bad enough getting run over by soccermom's in their Navigators.. now they get to look at all the pretty flashy things!!

    • Re:errrr.... (Score:4, Funny)

      by trongey ( 21550 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:06PM (#11094351) Homepage
      The number of techno-gadgets allowed in an automobile should be inversely proportional to it's mass.
      • there would be an exemption for SUVs.

        just like in the USA, the tax you pay for your vehicle depends on mass. SUVs qualify for "lorry" status, but that would mean inconveniencing SUV users a bit which is the last thing the US wants to do. so they don't make the SUV owners pay accroding to mass like everyone else.

        • wrong (Score:3, Insightful)

          by geekoid ( 135745 )
          First off the tax break was initially for Vans and trucks.
          The goal of the break was to allow farmers and small business witht here purches of need equipment. At that time SUV's were nowhere near the weight they are today, and they weren't seen as a status symbol.
          SO the tax break is not now, not has it ever been for 'SUVs'.

          They have since changed that tax break considerably.

          "...but that would mean inconveniencing SUV users a bit which is the last thing the US wants to do."

          Where is your logic in that?
          Why w
          • Why would that be true? Get off your knee jerk High horse.

            Except that he's dead right. Car manufacturers have been abusing the *FUEL ECONOMY* exemptions set out for "light utility vehicles". And our cowardly government has shyed away from the problem.

            After the 73 oil crisis people realized, "Hey, a small group of countries in the middle east can bring our economy to a standstill. We need to stop that." So the government started regulating fuel efficency in cars. What later came to be called the "SU

          • "Where is your logic in that?"
            The logic is that SUVs are the only type of vehical the American automobile industry consistantly turns a profit on.

            And if people stoped buying SUVs all those Mexicans that make American cars would be out of a job!

    • Re:errrr.... (Score:2, Funny)

      by zev1983 ( 792397 )
      And you thought having your regular windshield replaced was expensive...
      How much will it cost to replace these 'active' windshields after your ex bashes it in yet again...

      • Re:errrr.... (Score:2, Funny)

        by Rytr23 ( 704409 )
        after your ex* bashes it in yet again..
        • *Note to slashdotters: This refers to an individual with which you had a "relationship" with, that also took place in the "physical" aka "real" world, that is now no longer willing to deal with your neglect .. and in this example seems to be a tad disenchanted with you and your 'active' windshield

    • Re:errrr.... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) * on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:11PM (#11094431)
      Well this could have some beneficial uses as well such as overlaying dots on where the white and yellow lines are in the road. Especially at night in the rain where the glare of the headlight tend to make the lines hard to see and when you get in a multi lane interchange this can get troublesome. Also if they could change color when you cross them so you know that you could be a bit off course (due to being tired or just been diving for to long) Or overlaying direction from a GPS so you can see where you really should turn. It would be like having an arrow pointing the way. But care should be taken on how much stuff in in front of your field of vision. TV shows, Or cutesy things will just be dangerous.
      • screw all that, I want it to be able to change my face image when I fly through a camera speed trap.

      • Re:errrr.... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by NardofDoom ( 821951 )
        I'd settle for one that automatically blocks most of the sunlight. I'm too big for the visors to work without blocking my view of the road, and I almost hit a pedestrian this morning who was wearing white and in the glare of the sun. A dark dot that positions itself between the driver's eyes and the sun would be very useful, even if that's all the 'active' windshield did.
        • I've often wanted that as well. I came up with two possible solutions:

          An active matrix LCD winshield where the "pixels" were half inch square. Just activate the pixels that track through from the sun to my head position. I actually looked into it and without wearing some funny headgear it would be rather tough to actually do.

          The other option that I thought of would be to simply darken a 2 inch diameter circle centered around where you last touched the windshield, thus as you drove down the road, point
        • A dark spot that blanks out FOG LIGHTS would be an incredible boon to UK drivers.

          Very rarely do we get conditions bad enough on the roads to necessitate the use of these high-intensity red lights on the back of our cars, but every time there is even a light mist the useless !"£"%$£$ers just flip the switch and blind those of us who have to sit behind them.

          Some of us are professional drivers, some of use have to drive for 8 hours a day. Some of us could be classed as "dangerous" if we have to
      • I would prefer a projected heads up display.

        vehicle windshields are insanely expensive now, just wait until they embed this crap in it...

        yes sir, that crack in your windshield will cost $23,586.23 to replace the whole thing.

        no we cant fix the crack, it took out the top 1/2 of your display.

        it would be cheaper to buy a new car...

        gee alot like laptops!

    • This would be a really lousy way to make a head-up display for a car. The driver would have to shift focus between the road and the windshield display. Current head-up displays use reflection for a reason. When the display is reflected by a piece of glass at a 90 angle it appears as thought the information is being projected in the distance in front of the vehicle, so the driver does not have to shift his focus between far and near to read the information, it looks like it is projected on whatever he is loo
      • You sound like someone who has never driven a vehicle.

        By your logic, cars should not have rearview mirrors, speedmeters, stereos, etc. because these things make you look momentarily away from what's in front of the car.

        Also, Cadillac didn't think that their nightvision system was so bad with their small LCD screen on the dash, in front of the steering wheel.

        (Incidently, for those who don't know, you can now buy the same system and have it installed in your car, with the designed LCD "HUD" or without, so [nightdrivingsystems.com]
        • The nightvision system does not interfere with the view of the road because it is a view of the road. My point was that better technology already exists for a HUD. The whole point of a HUD is so the driver does not have to look away from the road. If you are going to put in an LCD panel, it might as well be on the dashboard, because the driver still has to look away from the road.

    • Re:errrr.... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Drantin ( 569921 ) *
      Wouldn't the actual chips/capacitors/resisters/etc still be a tad opaque? Now that'd make for an intersting windshield... and it'd better be a one-sided circuit or just be on the inside of the actual windshield in case of rain/insects/flying pieces of conductive metal... and condensation/freezing weather, etc...

    • Re:errrr.... (Score:5, Funny)

      by PapayaSF ( 721268 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @04:26PM (#11096284) Journal
      Or a truly active windshield display in the car.

      Now that could be a true "blue screen of death"!

  • comp house (Score:5, Funny)

    by anagama ( 611277 ) <obamaisaneocon@nothingchanged.org> on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:02PM (#11094297) Homepage
    "imagine that your house is your computer."

    Two words: kid, baseball
    • Or that hammer-throwing chick from the Apple 1984 commercial.
    • If I buy a bunch of tenements, can I make a Beowulf cluster?
    • Or a truly active windshield display in the car.

      Two more words: truck, rock.
  • Is that transparent or translucent... cuz if it's transparent how the hell do you even know if they are there? Sounds like one hell of a good sales trick... "Trust me... it's there... now hand over the thousand bucks!" ;)

  • house of porn (Score:5, Funny)

    by Class Act Dynamo ( 802223 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:04PM (#11094331) Homepage
    Imagine that your house is your computer!

    Yes, now the whole neighborhood will know when I am looking at porn. This is a wonderful idea.

  • There aren't any frigging pictures in this article (like many posted for /.)! Where is the love for geek pr0n?

    Might as well give us the info on a brand new linux distro with an outstanding desktop experience and then ... amazingly ... no pictures. Even Einstein gazed and was in awe of the night sky to his naked eye despite the more pragmatic applications of the universe. It's geek pr0n people! It rules! Give us pics!

    or something...

  • yes well (Score:2, Funny)

    by odyrithm ( 461343 )
    "Or a truly active windshield display in the car."

    your stuffed when it blue screens!

  • Tokyo Institute of Technology (Score:5, Funny)

    by NitsujTPU ( 19263 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:06PM (#11094356)
    Gooooooooooo TIT!
  • The first big product using this technology will be a high end video card with some embedded LEDs for great justice.

    It will be targetted at case modders, but will appeal to everyone because it looks so damn sexy.
  • Imagine something truely usefull, like a display that a surgeon place over the patients body with possible realtime x-ray infromation and/or other stats, letting them whats really going on instead of working almost blind. Think really non-invasive surgury. This has some wonderfull potential, and not just for general use.
    • Real time x-rays?? I'd rather just eat the bullet, it's quicker.
    • I don't think it's that kind of technology, it's already quite 'easy' to overlay infomration in that manner, suing lcd screens.

      This technology would appear to have the limited use of actually puting the CPU in the screen.

      Mostly this[the atrical] is just a 'wow look a totally transparent tablet pc', it would be just like having all those people standing behing you peeking at when your doing, except they can stand infront of you too.

      The real requirement would be where there are space or weight limits (a pr
    • the required dose will probably overwhelm any benefit. given the state of radiology and imaging technologies available, as well as scopes and other optical devices around, i wouldn't say surgions are working "almost blind."

      there is one instance where the "surgery" is performed almost blind: radiation therapy. therapy machines need to be programmed ahead of time (due to the complexity of the treatment plans) and real-time feed back is still in its infancy. transparent circuits don't make much difference,

  • insert required Star Trek reference here
  • So we're going to get new technology from a university named TIT? At least MIT sounds more prestigious.

  • The Inevitable (Score:5, Funny)

    by Doesn't_Comment_Code ( 692510 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:08PM (#11094383)
    ...and Apple will make a computer that looks like a big ice cube.
  • ...your next upgrade. erm we have a problem!
  • Finally! Now the paper I buy at the story can get viruses too! Electronic paper, the last thing I ever thought I might want. But hey, there is a plus to this. We could develop see through clothes with built in heaters right? Back enough transistors into the cloth and it's like your standing inside of a space heater!
  • i'm kinda leary of that, what happens if something cracks your windshield on the expressway and damages the circuits?
  • Imagine the horror of dying in a head on collision because a sudden and aggressive Ford popup ad took control of your car stereo's volume control and made you flinch.

    simulated film at eleven....
  • But I would hate to be from that school: Tokyo Institute of Technology. A MIT like naming scheme could be problematic...
  • "Honey, have you seen my PDA?"
  • will soon be a reality!
  • This could have a good impact on flat screen technology where you put the electronics on the piece of glass/plastic the covers the LCD display. So you can probably make it 1/3 thiner by doubling the plastic cover with the circuit board.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Movie Screens? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Undefined Tag ( 750722 )

    "...making it suitable for flat expanses of electronics such as massive display surfaces or walls with embedded networking" Sounds like they're talking about turning movie screens into giant processors.

    The question now is what would we want our movie screens to do?

    • Check to see if we're videotaping the movie and alert the authorities?
    • While I haven't read TFA, if the circuits are small enough, you could have the screen doing the video/audio decoding eleminating a small room full of audio/video gear. You would just need the amplifiers for the speakers plus the actuall interface (DVD drive, bank of HDD's, whatever) in the room, saving some space and possibly some heat. Havning never worked in a movie theater, I don't know how much heat is generated in the projection booth.

  • Imagine that your house is your computer!

    Welcome to Dayworld [pjfarmer.com], where your house and everything in it is integrated and on-line 24x7 (even if you aren't).

  • Imagine that, embed the processors into the radiators! If the house is getting a little cold, you know you need to turn on the SETI screensavers!

  • ...about transparent circuits, I immediately think "wearable computing" and how I could watch the stock ticker scrolling accross my boss' secretary's...

    Ah, never mind.
  • "Or a truly active windshield display in the car" I'd hate to get a rock chip while i'm playing solitaire.

  • Cost (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kmahan ( 80459 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:22PM (#11094575)
    I'm sure this will do wonders for the already outrageous cost of windshield replacements.

    And of course there will be the whole aftermarket of MOD'd windshields.

  • The Book of Alexandriaou (Score:3, Interesting)

    by corinroyal ( 526083 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:24PM (#11094620) Homepage
    Imagine sheets of this stuff in a book, with a HD, RAM, CPU, wireless nic in the spine. Now you have a book that is any book. No more scrolling, and loosing your place. You use a familliar and powerful user interface that's been with us since the scroll days. Remember what page youre on. Open right to the spot, instead of clicking and scrolling all day. The worst thing about computers today is the display technology. I want digital wallpaper. Watch movies on your living room wall. Setup a slow, subtle screensaver pattern for ur cieling for a date (you remember dates don't you?). Couple this with voice control, and you have one better than Captain Picard's viewscreen (except you don't have his processor, knowledge base, or storage capacity). Make it so.


  • I can only imagine what the likes of steve jobs would do with this. You recall the scene from the matrix in zion control tower with the clear touch screens. clear palm pilots which resemble just a rectangulat peice of glass. eye glasses which can show tactical info without any wires going back to a cpu. just two wires through either side of the frame.
  • Hey you got Windows in my computer....

    Hey you got computers in my Windows....

  • "The kids next door put a softball through my window and wiped out my entire MP3 collection!"

  • Imagine that your house is your computer! (Score:5, Funny)

    by pmbuko ( 162438 ) <pmbuko AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:48PM (#11094936) Homepage
    The last thing I need is all my windows crashing.
  • Before we get integrated windshield displays, we should get at least informational GPS/sensor guidance that warns the driver the moment they stray off the roomy straight and narrow. The first "active windscreens" should disply *only* that warning info, so car culture has a chance to integrate the safety features, well before the distracting features that make these safetey features absolutely necessary come online. Just like we all learn to drink, before we learn to drive, right USans?
  • Those Japanese people are amazing! Who needs alien technology?
  • Now those transparent card shaped computer components on Star Trek are one step closer to reality!
  • We could have transparent aluminum!!!
  • Will this help me see the Tron guys on motorcyles inside my computer? Cause right now they're tiny and they keep hiding inside capacitors.
  • I keep hearing all this feel-good nonsense pushed by companies trying to sell these gadgets.

    They keep saying that this new technology will make drivers safer. Yet in reality when this stuff comes to the market, people just find a way to use this stuff that makes them WORSE drivers!

    Remember when LCD screens were going to help people navigate? Now they end up missing their turn because they're busy watching TV on the screen that's supposed to be giving them directions.

    Remember when cell phones would make t

  • Bandgap/-structure? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sploxx ( 622853 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @03:15PM (#11095342)
    I wonder how they accomplish this... since a material which is transparent for optical photons should have a very high bandgap (>4eV), i.e. should behave much like an isolator at room temperature.
    Has anyone more information about that?
  • Cube farms will be replaced with phonebooth farms. Many employess are in fact poking the walls in a vain attempt to escape, some employees, however, are actually working on their computers.

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