Who thought that glass would be the game changer for top of the line technology companies such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft? Currently a smartphone or tablet screen is made of a hard durable plastic, but it is still plastic. It tends to scratch and glare much easier than any glass. The reason this plastic is still in use though is because of it doesn’t shatter as easily as glass and because of its touch screen capabilities.
There is good news though: a new type of durable, glare-proof, and best of touch screen sensitive glass called Gorilla Glass. This glass gives smartphone companies the ability to create the next generations of phones with better technology AND a screen that you don’t have to cover with a new screen protector every two months.
Apple is taking this new glass technology a step further than the smartphone competition and is paying the Gorilla Glass company to create a curved version of the glass that can be used on tablets and computers, but Microsoft and MIT students might just be leading the market in this technology with their 3D, transparent screen computer using Gorilla Glass.
In short, the 3D transparent screen allows a user to work behind the screen with their hands, either on the keyboard or by “pinching” items on the screen. Watch the video at
http://bit.ly/GOZ5bH to see how this technology works.
It is really cool to be able think about all the technology that goes into a smartphone or tablet and to realize that how a simple piece of glass changes the performance of it all. And to think that maybe something else, more basic than glass, could be what changes technology altogether sometime in the future. It’s just something to think about.