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by curiousigor 840 days ago
What's a use-case for somethings like this?

I see this as something that might work well as a front window of a car as an extension for the main display, but not as much as a replacement for an actual computer monitor. Cool tech though.
5 comments
SushiHippie 840 days ago
From TFA:

> The most obvious use case would be sharing info somewhere, like a doctor’s office or a hotel desk. Instead of needing to flip a screen around, you could simply reverse the display via software, allowing anyone on the other side to see it while getting an in-depth explanation.

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Springtime 840 days ago
Virtual Connect Four. Though what this brings to mind is one of Microsoft's mid-10s blue sky concept videos of seamless auto translation, where they used a translucent display as users on either side interacted with it and viewed the speech bubbles in the orientation of each viewer.

Given the capabilities of audio and text NNs these days, along with such displays, it would actually be plausible now.

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bmacho 840 days ago
If I had the money I'd totally use something like this for HN for example. Set the background to transparent, maybe separate the comments from each other, and you can see your legs or your mug in the spaces between comments, this sounds something that I'd totally do.
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esperent 840 days ago
I've been trying to think of use cases since I read about this a few days ago. I can't think of much, especially in laptop format. However, if you go beyond laptop into larger screens:

- A tv that becomes mostly invisible when turned off would be nice (I think I saw a tech demo recently?)

- A conference room screen on the central table but invisible until turned on would be a step towards the holographs you see characters meeting over in scifi movies. However, I'm not sure how much actual utility it has beyond cool factor - especially since all the text will be mirrored for those standing behind it

... and that's about it. The idea that you could put something behind the screen and sketch it which I've seen floated sounds kinda dumb. Much easier to just take a photo and draw over that.

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okasaki 840 days ago
Shitty sci-fi movies where the producer wants to show both the screen and the actor's face at the same time.
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