Thanks to movies like Minority Report and Iron Man 2, transparent devices are a gadget freak's dream that indicates the future of gadgets. Well the future is now.
Taiwan-based Polytron Technologies is working on accomplishing that dream and they have come up with a prototype transparent smartphone. As you can see in the video, the prototype is rough, but it's getting there.
So far there is no software running on the prototype, but at this stage it's all about the hardware. As you can see, you cannot hide everything in the smartphone like batteries and SD cards. However, if you cover the bottom the top could certainly be transparent.
Polytron Technologies is using something called "Switchable Glass technology." It's a conductive OLED display that uses liquid crystal molecules to display images. When the phone is turned on and the electrical current flows through the device, the molecules form text and images. Very cool!
Do you really want a transparent display? Will it look okay in all lighting situations? We won't know until we see it in action. It certainly marks another hurdle that we're about to jump over however. This technology is only a couple of years away, if that.