Samsung Introduces Mirrored and Transparent OLED Displays

Samsung Display Co. today unveiled what it’s calling the industry’s first mirrored and transparent OLED display panels at Retail Asia Expo 2015 in Hong Kong.

The displays, said to represent Samsung’s most advanced OLED technology, are intended to provide a visually compelling display that makes the retail shopping experience more engaging. When a mirrored or transparent display is integrated with Intel’s Real Sense technology—which combines 3D cameras with an automated library of stored “perceptions”—the result is a “virtual fitting room” for modeling clothing, shoes, and jewelry.

Compared with LCD mirror panels now on the market, the OLED mirror has a 75 percent reflectance level and delivers “at least 50 percent higher reflectance,” improved color gamut, a 100,000:1 contrast ratio (vs. 4,000:1 for LCD), and a faster response time (under 1ms vs. 8ms), according to Samsung. Due to the self-illuminating nature of OLED, the mirror display also does not require ambient backlighting to displaying images on-screen. Samsung sees an OLED mirror that provides digital information as a potential replacement for home mirrors in the future.

The transparent OLED Samsung was demonstrated with gesture and voice control provided by Intel’s Real Sense rotatable 3D viewing system. Samsung believes this kind of interactive display will make sense in car dealerships and other retail, transportation, hospitality/hotel locations.

The transparent OLED display has a transparency level of more than 40 percent, which compares with 10 percent achieved by current transparent LCD displays, according to Samsung. Compared with conventional LCD, the company says the transparent OLED has a substantially higher color gamut, sharply increased transmittance (45 percent vs. around 10 percent), and better clarity through a wider range of viewing angles.

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