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Since our smartphones started doing everything for us, we’ve noticed people walking around with them glued to their hands and their eyes glued to the screen.
This level of not paying attention to where you’re walking is bound to cause accidents, and it has, with some so severe they’ve made it to national news and gone viral on YouTube. But what if we could see through our phones so that we know where we’re going at the same time?
It’s an idea that has partially been done already with apps that provide a constant feed from your smartphone’s rear camera to your screen, then overlaying things like text messages and emails over the top. While clever, it’s an app that’s going to eat away at your battery life and cost you money. Leading Japanese mobile network NTT Docomo thinks it has the solution: transparent touchscreens.
We’ve seen transparency on mobile phones before, such as the LG GD900 ‘Crystal’ which had a clear yet fully functional keyboard with no wires or electrical parts in sight – it was awesome. Now transparency has made it to the screen, allowing you to see through your phone completely while also seeing apps, icons and everything else that you normally would on your phone.
The device that NTT Docomo has created is currently a prototype, but it shows that we can keep our new favoured method of interacting – touch – and also be able to see where we’re going when we walk, eyes glued to the phone screen.
This new screen tech is double-sided too, which means you can operate it with touch from both sides. Why you would want to use your phone backwards is beyond us, although it could make for an interesting way of playing two player games we suppose.
An advantage of having a screen that can be operated from both sides is the expansion of multitouch and gestures. The network recently showed off the prototype screen running a Rubik’s Cube demo, which could be controlled using advanced multitouch gestures if you touched both the front and back of the screen at the same time.
It’s still early days for this type of tech; so don’t expect to see phones with see-through screens in your local phone shop anytime soon. However, it’s certainly an exciting development and one that could become very useful.
Are you a phone addict who has suffered a mishap from walking and being glued to the phone in your hand? Let us know what you think of the transparent touchscreen!
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
Via: The Verge
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