Transparent displays are still a relatively new piece of tech, and because of that they are both limited in their usability as well as being very expensive. Many of the current transparent display solutions also use techniques that are complex to manufacture and only work if you happen to be viewing the display from a specific angle.
MIT believes it has solved many of the problems associated with such displays, though, by creating a new transparent display that is very cheap to manufacture, scales easily, and has wide viewing angles. The secret? nanoparticles.
What MIT has done is to embed nanoparticles in the material to be used as the transparent display, for example, a sheet of glass. Each nanoparticle will only scatter specific wavelengths, which means you can display graphics of a specific color or range of colors while still being able to see through the glass or whatever material you decide to use. The display in the video above only outputs blue, but MIT says it can get a red, green, and blue display working allowing for full color output.
Because the display only relies on a coating of nanoparticles and image projection, it is easy to manufacture and can be applied to a range of surfaces. For example, there’s no reason such a display couldn’t be shipped as a transparent plastic sheet you attach to another transparent surface like a shop window. In vehicles, the nanoparticles could be incorporated into the windshield manufacturing process.
MIT intends to keep refining the process in order to get the cost of the materials and manufacturing down. But it already looks like a much better solution for in-car HUDs, advertising on glass, or simply reusing a transparent surface in any setting as a display.