This Invisible TV Is Just A Glass Pane When Switched Off

At first glance, it looks like a glass pane in a sliding door, but at the flick of a switch a television screen instantly appears. Turn the TV panel off, and it’s hard to tell if it was ever there to begin with. The sci-fi style googlebox was first revealed by Japanese electronics company Panasonic at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in January. It has since been updated and refined. The makers of the gadget said they had swapped the LED screen for a new OLED display that doesn’t need a backlight that doesn’t need a backlight to give it a picture. Since then, the Japanese company has embedded the screen into the front of a cabinet and has also improved the image to where it is “almost indistinguishable from existing televisions”.

The screen looks like an ordinary sheet of glass until it’s turned on and the high definition picture shimmers into view. The OLED screen is made from a fine mesh, embedded into the glass sliding door. While the TV image is visible even with the backlight on, once it’s dimmed the image is clear and bright enough to be almost indistinguishable from existing televisions. While not in use, consumers can see the vases and statues that sit behind the television on the shelves. The TV is still a prototype, and is unlikely to be available for at least three years, according to a Panasonic spokesperson. Panasonic isn’t the only company that’s experimenting with futuristic TVs. LG has a screen that rolls up like a newspaper.