Electronic and optical glass specialists Polytron Technologies are putting their expertise towards creating a transparent smartphone.
A very early incarnation of the phone was shown off to the Mobile Geeks website and reveals a completely see-through handset with a microSD card slot, battery, speakers and microphone.
Current technology means the latter selection of parts remain opaque so, as a result, the prototype hardware has a certain “You can see my innards” aesthetic — something Polytron is aiming to work around most likely by introducing an opaque section within which to hide the non-transparent necessities. Like tidying your room by carefully hiding everything under the bed.
Although the circuitry allows the device to play music, it can’t run any software yet, making it impossible to judge how user-friendly the display might be. However, Polytron’s existing smartglass technologies provide hints for how the screen might work.
The brand’s Polyvision privacy glass is probably the most relevant to the smartphone and comprises a layer of liquid crystal film held between two layers of glass. When powered, the laminated glass is clear (because of how the electricity alters the composition of the liquid crystal layer) but when switched off it becomes a translucent cloudy white. Presumably a variation on this technology could be used to create a screen on which information could be effectively displayed.
According to Mobile Geeks, Polytron is hoping to have a fully working prototype by the end of 2013.
