LG Marketing Video Walks Through Potential Use-Cases For Transparent OLED

March 2, 2023 by Dave Haynes

LG ran what it called a “Transparent Future Exhibition” for a couple of weeks in December in Seoul to showcase a variety of potential use-cases for its transparent OLED displays, and now the electronics giant has released a video that runs through some of those use-cases in more detail. The concepts are pretty interesting.

The exhibition had five theme zones, including Mobility, Office Space, Culture & Entertainment, Retail, and Home.

I think the most scalable, high-opportunity is the Mobility sector, which rolls in mass transport systems. LG is suggesting transparent OLED could be applied to the glass safety walls – there to prevent people falling on subway tracks – for messaging and guidance, as well as on subway car windows to function as something of an AR overlay.

The other one that has some scale potential to it are for product display cabinets in retail and food services. OLEDs are super-thin and flexible, so they can be applied to things like curved glass cabinets – something that’s evident at about 2:49 in the video.

There’s a lot to like about transparent OLED and LG has continued to produce and market the product even though there hasn’t been a lot of evidence of widespread adoption. I’m sure a lot of that owes to price (they’re not cheap), brightness (OLEDs are getting brighter, but the current model peaks at 600 nits) and limited options. The ability to make sheets of glass changeable and dynamic is pretty powerful if done right, and the environmental conditions – like the sun’s heat and glare – don’t cause problems.

LG recently indicated there would be a 77-inch version, and a 30, to complement the 55-inch that’s been on the market since the mid-2010s. A 77 would perhaps open up some new opportunities, as that larger footprint would mean fewer seams between the units when they’re tiled together.

Here’s the video …