Look at the header image. Do you see anything on the right? No? Look closer. Yep, Nippon Electric Glass developed a new technology it calls ‘invisible glass’ because it looks, well, invisible. The point of the glass is to reduce as much glare as possible, a huge disadvantage of normal glass. In fact, normal glass reflects 8 percent of all light that passes through it. This new “invisible” glass reflects only 0.5 percent.

Seriously, the first time I saw the picture, it took me a while to realize there was actually a piece of glass at all on the right side. Nippon Electric Glass was able to develop this glass using an anti-reflection film on the front and back. There are over 30 layers of the film on each side of the invisible glass, and the thickness of each layer can be measured in nanometers.

If this prototype invisible glass eventually makes it to market, we could see it implemented in mobile phones and tablets to eliminate that pesky glare most noticeable outside. This would even work for laptops, desktops, and televisions. I think tablets would benefit most from the new technology since they are made up primarily of large sheets of glass, and people are more likely to use them in direct sunlight thanks to portability and long battery life. “Invisible” glass could also possibly take away the e-ink display advantage from popular readers like the Kindle.

Nippon Electric Glass did not announce plans for commercial production yet, but the satisfaction of knowing this type of glass is in the works certainly provides hope for the future of mobile device displays.

[via Phone Scoop]