LG may have backed out of the smartphone rat race, but it is far from bowing out of consumer electronics, especially those that have screens. From TVs to laptops, LG has been pushing the envelope of its display technologies, including some with non-traditional form factors and designs. Even before it revealed the defunct LG Rollable, the company has been showing off rollable displays for signages and industrial applications. Now it’s back with another display innovation, this time for use in retail stores, in offices, and even in homes.

Transparent displays are naturally the stuff of science fiction and are, unsurprisingly, harder to pull off in real life. It wasn’t until recently that the materials and the technologies to make transparent displays possible have become more widely available. LG is now boasting to be at the forefront of that push with a handful of transparent OLEDs for different purposes and uses.

It’s easy enough to think of how stores can benefit from such screens, especially those with window displays. Why settle for a simple glass window when a “Show Window” made up of four 55-inch panels can show off the product and add some juicy details about it. This can help draw the attention of people nearby and turn them into potential buyers.

A “Shopping Managing Showcase,” on the other hand, is a smaller version that is designed to be placed on tabletop showcases. LG imagines this transparent OLED to be used in luxurious department stores, where “eye-catching visuals” adapt to the products that are on display. It definitely beats having to change the physical decor every time there’s a change in products on the shelf.

LG

LG, however, is also aiming for non-commercial applications of these screens. “Smart Window,” for example, will try to make large TVs or monitors in offices a thing of the past, turning any window into a screen for video conferencing or presentations. “OLED Shelf,” on the other hand, is for adding some hi-tech decor to your living room.

LG credits OLED technology’s self-emitting nature as one of the enablers for these transparent displays. That said, all of these are still concepts that will be shown off at CES 2022 next month, so who knows when they’ll actually hit consumer and commercial markets.