Its not a concept laptop, It's a concept idea... that video is fake. Blue-screen background and then edited.

Such a horribly made green screened video... you could see the glare in all the shots...

That's such a bad idea. The screen's contrast ratio would be crap.

of course this is fake...been done a million times before not hard to do.

Very fake, but i must say i love that song, anyone know what it is?

@LankySean: The song is fake too

now kids.... know your after effects before you make silly videos....

I hope you didn't get fooled by this.

@xanderbeedle:

not to nitpick, but its actually a greenscreen desktop. You can see the shitty key when he moves his "magic craptop" back and forth.

Guess I am nit picking. My bad.

HAHAHAHAH HAROON, YOU GOT GOT! It's green/blue screen.

Nice idea, bad execution. The background is inexplicably brighter when seen through the "transparent" screen, the same "transparent" screen that casts a very solid shadow.

If he calls it a concept, doesn't that mean that they don't have a currently working product, just the idea for one? Everyone is screaming 'fake!', but who claimed it was real?

Anyways, I like the idea, and I would use it if my laptop could do it.

I lol'd at the green reflection of the screen onto the keyboard at the very end.

You get a C for effort?

Obviously his laptop can't this do that either ;-)

PWWWWWNNNDDDDD!!!!!!!!11111!!11

Unless of course they was talking about video editing in which case their wrong my laptop can do that (only barely though).

I am sorry I had to join just to comment on this. Whoever wrote this story is not the brightest peanut in the turd. It is obviously fake. You can tell its a green/blue screen. Use common sense please.

@LankySean:

The song is Smokebelch II, by The Sabres Of Paradise

+ Watch video

From the poster's video description:

"Tags:
laptop hologram greenscreen effect"

Harron, did you actually think this was real?

This was a horribly done video. Anyone who was fooled by this is an idiot.

Reminds me of that Dinosaur Themepark concept I saw a two-hour demo for in the theaters about 15 years ago.

Still waiting for that to come to market. Total vaporware.

this doesn't deserve to be in gizmodo. kudos lost...

Hell, I just wanted to say, this was a good render.
To be honest, because it was a shitty video i assumed alot of those things were just bad encoding artifacts.

The only thing that tipped me off, was that the laptop cast a shadow, but the image did not reflect that.

he should have made the video see the shadow, would have been much more impressive

So, when it's a Windows machine, it's a interesting concept.

When it's a Mac (check the "we have seen before link") it's an "optical illusion".

Nice.

@cayton: Exactly. It's just a concept, not a prototype. No one said it was a real device.

I've noticed a curmudgeonly view on Giz these days, like poo-pooing phone/internet on the airplane becaue you can't be bothered to tell the person next to you to be quiet.

This wouldn't work well for me (if it were to become a reality). My wife could easily see that I'm viewing porn instead of doing her computer work for her.

forget about the green screen (it is a concept)

You don;t see the applications for this? your kidding me?

How about your cars windshield, or a pilots view out of the Jet, heck I would love a couple of windows like this!

I love how many people comment and concur how fake the post is, while the story poster themself gives his opinion about how bad an idea this is.

Actually no, I dont love it. Whiners.

Call me when they invent real holograms.

The song is greenspeakered too

If the display is transparent, how the hell will he watch Big Black Wet Ghetto Booty Anal Hoe Next Door #12?

Bah, screw a transparent display.

@JcMarin: yeah, I was thinking this would be wicked in my car, but then I realized, hmmmm, everyone else would want it too, and most people are f$#@ing idiots who shouldn't be out on the road anyhow, and this would make them even more dangerous. so no, no, no, won't happen in cars, methinks. but putting solar panels on cars is a no brainer, and use them to power AC which can run when you are shopping in the mall while it's 100 degrees outside. why hasn't this been done yet? those window units they make don't work worth a crap I've heard. idiots.

Err, guys? No one ever said it was real.

lol ppl can see whats on the screen brom behind the screen. thats DANGEROUS!!

i think this would be great. especially with a picture window. instead of the normal tv, the window would become the tv when i wanted it two. I don't think that it would have to follow that the back of the display would have to be visable also. you could easily add a lcd to the back and black out whatever pixels where active.

Amazing how a transparent screen can extend the DOF of objects behind it when filmed! He could have at least tried to use the same settings on his video camera when filming the composite scene.

It may be usable when typing a document in, you can place the documents side by side in your screen :P

Actually, I will ask for one when my hand can go through the screen with no borders around...

Here's a good project idea. someone should mod a laptop with a camera on the back of the screen and format it to show a 1/1 scale live video on screen. Then code a program to run live running video as a background and BAMB instant awesomeness.

@Haroon Malik: I don't know, I think that one needs to read between the lines before calling it a "concept".
Saying``I bet your laptop can't do this ;-)'' at the beginning of your video screams, ``Look how cool I am, try to guess how I did this!'' ...that, or someone was just really bored and wanted to get some giggles.
Concept videos use fade-ins instead of marquees too :P

how did this make gizmodo news?

The laptop with the transparent screen is real! The rest of the room is what is fake. He even filmed it with a fake video camera. Those hands were just rubber.

If anyone's actually taken apart an LCD, they are basically transparent when you remove the backlight panel. Look at home-made LCD projector mods.

But yes, this video should not have made Gizmodo.

@cayton: there's nothing that says it's a concept_ It's labeled "cool laptop effect"_ Nothing more_ Meaning some kid with -

- time on his hands
- a video camera
- bad skill in after effects
- bad choice in background music

.....slapped this together and we are all giving the moron his 15 minutes_

KUDOS lost gizmodo. Try again. Lamest lame video compositing EVER to hit gizmodo. Why didn't you just put a Rick Astley video instead?

Actually, the right way to do it would be a translucent shell behind the LCD, and a switch to turn off the backlight. But this greenscreen video is pretty lame; the complete loss of shadows seen "through" the LCD is a dead giveaway.

i could see this being used inside helmets on the battlefield or inside motorcycle helmets to display various bits of info. a soldier could acctually have the radar we find in most fps games that would give him a top-down view of the area with his buddies locations. a biker could have a video display running in his helmet that would show behind him instead of having to use those small rear-view mirrors. granted this tech can't be used everywhere but i think it's an awesome idea with some great applications waiting for it

@banmojo: It has been done in a select few mercedes vehicles

Starbucks stalkers everywhere rejoiced. Now you can spy on the cute girl sitting across from you while looking like you're surfing Gizmodo.

@Glamdering: you DO know that she'll see you thru the screen that you are NOT reading Giz right ? i mean its transparent ...

If this were real, which is obviously not in this video ... but probably technically feasible ... Everybody will be able to read your emails and the pages you visit when you go to someplace like Starbucks, so there is nothing cool about this effect

@nikescar: hmm nope, i believe the Merc's and other's approach is a HUD more like a teleprompter than this. The windshield is too easily broken and nicked and this would make it frightfully expensive to replace.