Using technologies developed for displays, a Taiwanese company is showing off prototypes of a phone made of glass.
Polytron Technologies has released a phone that is invisible, nearly, with electronics that are so tiny they are too small to see. The phone’s circuitry is made up of ultra-thin wires sandwiched between two glass layers.
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Polytron has a long history with display technology, and markets a product as “privacy glass.” The liquid crystal molecules in the glass are arranged randomly when the current is off, but when it is on they line up and allow light to pass through. So this phone would be invisible until it is turned on. Polytron has said that several mobile phone companies are interested in using the technology.
That said, the phone is at an early stage yet. There are also parts of the phone that can’t be transparent, such as the SIM card and the battery. And the demonstration video, from Mobile Geeks, doesn’t show it running with an operating system.
Cool as it is, it seems that a phone made of glass would have to be shatterproof at the very least. And it might give a new twist to finding your misplaced phone.
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