See-through Display Wall
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on September 12 that the university's research team headed by Lee Woo-hun, associate professor in the Industrial Design Department of the College of Information Science & Technology, and Lee Gee-hyuk, associate professor in the Computer Science Department of the College of Information Science & Technology, developed the TransWall. The TransWall enables users to enjoy gaming and communication via a two-sided touchable see-through display.
This technological innovation was displayed at the SIGGRAPH exhibition in July, the world's premier exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques, and was chosen for the Emerging Technologies program.
The TransWall is a holographic screen film inserted between two touchable panes of glass. Images are then projected on the glass with beam projectors on either side. The final attachment of a surface transducer to the glass allows users to hear and feel vibrations of the display at the touch of a glass wall.
According to the research team, people can enjoy gaming from both sides while waiting, if the glass wall is set up in a public space such as a theme park, shopping center, or subway station.
Professor Lee Woo-hun pointed out, "At first, the TransWall looks like a simple glass wall. But it is a medium on which users can exchange visual, acoustic and vibro-tactile information," adding, "It shows a concept that can be tapped and commercialized in the near future. It demonstrates how large transparent displays can be utilized in real life, through the interactive method of simultaneous touches at the same spot."