[Groxx]

So they've taken a regular screen, added a touch-sensing layer like loads of things have already added, and made it harder to read what's on it. Is this supposed to be good?

If they got it to be self-lit (ie, via the edges), it might be interesting, but it doesn't look to me like that's what it is - it looks like the box behind it is providing all the light. So it is, very precisely, a large, expensive rear-projection display.

Wow. Congrats to the research team, how many DIY LCD hacks did you have to see to realize you could do this?

[Groxx]

Yeah, I suppose I deserve the down-vote, too much snark. Apologies! Especially due to this info alok-g linked: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display_televisi... Important bit: 3M suggests that, on average, only 8 to 10% of the light being generated at the back of the set reaches the viewer.

I'd always thought they were more transparent than that, given that I've seen LCD screens used as projectors: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-LCD-PROJECTOR/ in which case (though there's no way to detect how bright the box behind it is) a highly-transparent screen could indeed be a fairly significant breakthrough.

[1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2267436