Before a bunch of people comment on how useless this is or why would you want that, think about the next time you are walking through a mall. See how many TVs and LCDs you see. Now imagine all those powered by the ambient light in the mall instead of conventional sources. That's why this is going to be cool and useful, not for your living room.
I'm not sure which of two things you mean [EDIT: perhaps both], but neither of them seems to make sense.
1. "All those LCDs and TVs won't need to be backlit; they'll just use whatever light there was behind them." By definition, if you do that then they can't be brighter than whatever was behind them; and unless what's behind them is nice and uniform, you won't be able to see them clearly. This just isn't going to look good enough for the purposes most of those displays are there for.
2. "We'll power the LCDs and TVs photoelectrically, using the ambient light." Then you'll need a large area of photovoltaic cells to power them, somewhere that was well-illuminated but black. You could save more electricity by painting that area white instead and reducing the lighting slightly.
That looks great if they can make it into windows panes - the outside of the glass is the solar panel and the inside can play video. Make it transparent on whim. Make it opaque to block out the sun.
A camera in the back and some video tools could make for some really awesome desktops. Seeing a virtual Godzilla stomp around the city would be so cool. Bonzi Buddy 2020.
I, for one, would superimpose some blue skies and nice fluffy clouds upon rainy afternoons... And big, silvery dirigibles. Always liked those.
Notice the background is very clean - most real windows will show you buildings and trees. If, however, that could be combined with "privacy glass", specially if you could make the glass less transparent on a pixel-by-pixel way, then I would consider changing all my windows.
It seems to me like most people commenting here see this as transparent TV instead of seeing it as futuristic window that displays stuff !
I'd like to have this kind of stuff on certain windows, and not as a replacement for a TV, that big piece of furniture that sits in a living room.
It's a bit like "surfaces" by Microsoft. It's not really about turning computers into tables, but it's about turning tables into amazing futuristic furniture (that are extra useful).
I love the future. Hopefully this won't go the way of the OLED and be way too expensive for practical use. I know it's only a matter of time, but I want this now! There are so many interest problems that a technology like this one could be applied in solving.
Looks like it's not actively backlit? Way cooler than it has any right to be, at least in the daytime. Brightness is automatically directly proportional to the light coming from behind! Wonder what they have planned for night.
Obviously incredibly cool, but at the same time, how often do you want to see what is behind your monitor? Other than storefront windows and cars I would think it would be distracting to have everything be transparent.
