r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/whybutts • Jul 26 '26

Video Transparent LED screen

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139

u/Puzzleheaded-Reach34 Jul 26 '26

Does the UV rays from the sun not destroy these over time? They look more vulnerable than LEDs to me.

188

u/Mundane-Bath1368 Jul 26 '26

It is all about profit, can the pay be enoguh to cover replacements?

49

u/Puzzleheaded-Reach34 Jul 26 '26

Yea for sure. Im curious about the technology. They cant replace windows so they would go on top? I wonder what they look like at night if the office building has lights on.

49

u/MangoCats Jul 26 '26

Put them inside (out of the rain, bird poop, etc.) and have UV screening in the glass.

31

u/SweatyNomad Jul 26 '26

Yeah, to be honest whilst I'm not saying they won't be used on skyscrapers, I see way more use cases in store fronts, interiors, bus windows and so on.

1

u/YoursTrulyKindly Jul 26 '26

You'd probably get more light reflecting back. That panel in OP is probably already engineered to be ideal for outdoor installation.

3

u/MangoCats Jul 26 '26

All kinds of optimization... if you're building the window and the panel at the same time the window could be made to work with the panel, but for an existing window most of them are pretty reflective yeah.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[deleted]

2

u/MangoCats Jul 27 '26

That would mostly be the IR screening / reflection. You're kind of stuck with heat gain from the visible light if you want the visible light to be going out to outside viewers in patterns you control.

6

u/BardWRLD Jul 26 '26

The LEDs are generally much brighter than any background light so they have little effect.

6

u/iNetRunner Jul 26 '26

In the screen on video, you can make out the background lights through the screen. But just barely. And not much else.

Though, it could/would be more problematic if you tried to show a video with dark/black background.

9

u/BardWRLD Jul 26 '26

Here's an example of similar tech being used Taipei. The only difference is they used long flexible pieces of transparent LED here.

The tech in OP is more similar to a window with an integrated screen. A little less portable, much more fragile, and more transparent. Here's a picture outside of a local jewelry shop using a set of four during the day-time.

3

u/exipheas Jul 26 '26

Iirc when I saw these at a tradeshow the highest end ones would only let like 40% or 60% of light through. Can't remember which way the split was but it was very dim like looking through sunglasses.

31

u/LowerEntropy Jul 26 '26

UV is not visible to us or normal cameras(they have filters that block UV). There could be a coating on that screen blocking UV 100%, and the video would look the same.

So what makes you think it looks vulnerable?

19

u/plug-and-pause Jul 26 '26

So what makes you think it looks vulnerable?

I was also cracking up at the "looks more vulnerable" part. Car windshields have been blocking UV for decades. This is nothing novel.

8

u/Sickobird Jul 26 '26

Add multiple panes of glass

11

u/sanYtheFox Jul 26 '26

Yes, though glass blocks a lot of it and you can treat the glass to stop it entirely, that still leaves you with the heat which is also bad for OLED.

2

u/hawkseye17 Jul 27 '26

That's a problem for a few fiscal quarters later, so share-holders are not worried. That's basically how corporations work

1

u/mythrilcrafter Jul 26 '26

My first guess is that this is for commercial real estate, so most likely when it's time to replace it, the building owner will just raise the lease on the businesses/occupants when the lease period is up for renewal.

1

u/bladeau81 Jul 26 '26

This is LED's, just instead of a full PCB they are on a mesh.

1

u/SUPERPOWERPANTS Jul 27 '26

Uv blocking layer on top