Over the years, big tech companies have tried constantly to stay ahead of the competition by creating innovative and unique tech, design concepts and software features. We have seen it all… from the folding smartphones and AI-controlled Pins to the introduction of the Apple Vision Pro. But could these ideas have finally been topped? Recently, the term ‘transparent tech’ has been thrown around a lot, with people praising the tech for the fact it doesn’t obstruct views of surroundings meaning the tech can blend in and provide a roomier environment appearance.
We thought it would be a good plan to take a closer look at this concept tech, to determine whether it is a good, useful idea or if it's just another promotion plan from companies to get ahead of the competition with no real benefit behind it.
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What are transparent tech gadgets?
Transparent tech (also known as clear tech) is exactly what you’d expect it to be. Technology that has clear hardware so that the inside workings of the device can be seen. Initially, this idea developed in the late 90’s, when a trend known as the ‘Clear Craze’ quickly became popular where almost everything was created with a clear design. Watches, staplers, calculators, gaming devices… you name it, there was a clear edition!
It was originally done in a subliminal marketing way to make products appear more trustworthy. If a customer could see inside the product they were purchasing it meant they knew exactly what they were buying giving customers a sense of control over what they were using. During the 90s, technology was starting to get huge, so gaining an understanding of what was going on inside these tiny consoles was a great benefit to companies.
But now, this transparent craze has returned but instead of being used to subliminally market products to customers, its main use now is to help enhance our tech and digital experiences.
Latest and greatest transparent tech inventions:
- HMD Boring Phone
- LG Transparent OLED TV
- Flipper Zero Transparent
- CoolKiller CK68 Keyboard
- PDP REALMz Wired LED Light-up Controller
What is the transparent tech used for?
There are many reasons why transparent tech is seeing a return. Firstly, the ‘want’ purposes. Clear products could be wanted for that nostalgic approach, bringing back a trend from almost 30 years ago that older audiences would love. As well as this, people want to be different, everyone has opaque tech so having something see-through is a great way to stand out from the crowd.
But also, there are many useful reasons to need this product. It can help graphic designers and content creators if they are designing, as they can see what is behind their screen which will make sketching simpler. Transparent tech doesn’t only benefit specific job types, if you work in the office or work from home, these see-through concepts allow users to keep watch of their kids or pets or refer back to notes without the laptop frame getting in the way.
How does a Lenovo transparent laptop work?
So where has the talk of transparent tech originated from? Lenovo recently announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year that they had a concept for a new ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop with a screen you can peer straight through. Nicknamed Project Crystal, the invention will be the first laptop with a transparent microLED display.
Project Crystal has been described to be most helpful for digital artists, as we mentioned earlier, explaining that it will be helpful to see what is behind them whilst working.
We do know however that this concept has no further details when it comes to a release date, price range or when the project will be even put into development, but we cannot wait to see what this tech brings and cannot wait to check it out ourselves!
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Conclusion:
In our opinion, we think that the transparent laptop and tech invention is quite a good idea. It’s good to see a slight change in the way tech is created rather than just the usual software updates. As long as companies continue to create both transparent and opaque tech and don’t just begin to focus on the clear option, we think this would be a great aspect to explore.
It would be good to see how this would creatively benefit designers also and provide more opportunities for tech developers to create even more exciting and innovative features. As well as this, transparent tech just looks different and stands out in a good way which we love.
