The aesthetics of smartphones and tablets hasn't really changed all that much in recent years, but if a recent patent filed by LG is anything to go by we could soon see tablet-sized devices with foldable and transparent displays.
It's been known for a while now that companies like LG and Samsung are working on flexible and foldable displays and every few years it seems there's an attempt to make cool transparent screens catch on, but it looks like LG is considering combining the two in what could be the winning combination.
The recently filed patent shows a rectangular device, similar to a tablet, with a hinge in the center that allows it to fold like a book. In addition to this it looks like LG plans to make the screen completely transparent.
The way is clear
On one side of the illustrated device, there appears to be touch-sensitive multimedia controls while the other is blank, suggesting video content is displayed there, though it's not clear whether this screen would also be touch-sensitive.
Since this is only a patent, it'd be foolishly optimistic to suggest we'll see such a device on the market any time soon.
That said, recently Samsung appears to have made a significant breakthrough with regards to the problems holding its foldable screens back and Panasonic demonstrated an impressive transparent TV display, so perhaps devices like this one from LG could arrive on the market sooner than we think.
