First came OLED, then came curved. Now, Samsung has filed a patent for a see-through screen on a digital camera so you can stare into your subject’s eyes while taking a photo.
(Credit: Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service)
As spotted by The Wall Street Journal, Samsung has filed a patent in Korea that details a digital camera featuring a transparent display. The document has a diagram of a proposed camera that features an elongated, slim design with the screen off to one side rather than the traditional orientation where the screen is at the back.
There aren’t many other details about the technical specifications of either the screen or the camera itself. As for the purpose of the transparent screen?
“This design is of a digital camera using a transparent display that allows the person taking the photo and the subject of the photo shoot to look at each other and have direct eye-contact for photo shooting,” said the filing.
It sounds useful for subjects such as children who can lose interest in being photographed. However, because the lens is not actually placed directly in front or on top of the screen, maintaining eye contact with the photographer means the subject won’t appear as if they are looking into the lens.
Samsung has pushed a number of novel features to market on its cameras, such as an Android-based compact and more recently the Galaxy NX, an interchangeable lens camera running Android. For now, we’ll have to wait and see if the transparent screen actually makes it into the real world.