THIRD ANNUAL SCREENS ISSUE - MediaPost

THE FUTURE
OF SCREENS
SCREENLESS DISPLAYS
While proper 3-D holograms
(“Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
You’re my only hope!”) are
still a long way off, the first
screenless 2-D displays do
exist today — if you can
swallow the $50,000 price
54 MEDIA MAGAZINE Spring 2012
Must See-Through
TV: Technology
like Samsung’s
Transparent Smart
Window LCD will
eventually evolve
into the morning
news displayed in
your bathroom mirror
THE FUTURE OF SCREENS
FIVE THINGS WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE
point charged by companies
like IO2 Technology. For the
consumer market, screenless
displays — projectors that cast
images into thin air rather than
needing a surface to project
on — have yet to make an
appearance. Imagine setting
your smartphone on a table
at Starbucks and seeing your
computer desktop pop up in
the air (as you type on a virtual
keyboard that’s projected
onto the table, and move files
around with a flick of your
finger in the air).
enough to live comfortably in any of those form factors and
more. Planners are already starting to take into account the fact
that screens no longer occupy a fixed time and place in the lives
of Americans and the rest of the world — but soon enough (it is
beginning already), a screen will not only be a utility you can take
with you anywhere you go, but will become something that meets
you on the go, whether you’ve taken it with you or not, as public
screens proliferate and come to know more about who is watching
them and when. The challenge will be to understand what kind of
message is right for what kind of screen at what time and for what
consumer. Because what’s happening is a fragmentino of media
consumption unprecedented in the history of media — nothing
less than a shattering of the screen as we know it, into a myriad of
modes and devices that in the end represent more of an opportunity
than a challenge, at least to those who know how to view them.
Taller, Thinner, Brighter, Better
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this January
prompted talk of “the end of trade shows” and the irony of
waiting in long, nearly stationary lines to check out the latest
mobile gadget. But it also provided a glimpse of the new reach
of screens that are set to hit the market in the next few years:
bigger, smaller, thinner, lighter, brighter, more flexible and
even transparent screens all put in an appearance.
SMART CONTACT LENSES
Barring images zapped right
onto your eyeball, how about
images appearing in your
contact lenses? Researchers at
the University of Washington
in Seattle have recently made
strides toward that reality —
though at the moment their
lenses display only a single
pixel and have been tested
only on rabbits. Combined
with the next generation of
sophisticated augmented-reality
technology, though, contactlens
displays could make a host
of information available to you
on a hands-free basis.
RETINA PROJECTION DISPLAYS
No less a technology guru
than Bill Gates has predicted
that the next generation
of screens will consist of
images projected directly
onto the retina of your eye.