Glass manufacturer Corning has published the second YouTube video in its series “A Day Made of Glass”. It provides a glimpse into the future of ubiquitous touchscreen glass displays, from the car dashboard to the kitchen refrigerator and wall-to-wall home display, the large school community table to the medical laboratory, even the glass wall in an outdoor theme park.
Corning Day Of Glass 2
Mashable writes in its story about the video that it “will blow your mind”. Hyperbole aside, it is worth watching (click on image above). The script goes through a typical day and shows various display applications; then it pauses the scenes and mentions the underlying technological challenges and whether the depicted displays are possible and feasible with today’s technology. From the video:
“Of course, this is not just a story about glass. It’s a story about a shift in the way we will communicate and use technology in the future. It’s a story about ubiquitous displays, open operating systems, shared applications, cloud media storage and unlimited bandwidth. We know there are many obstacles to be overcome before what we’ve just seen will become an attainable, reliable reality. But at Corning, we believe in this vision – and we are not waiting.”
Besides being a great corporate promotional piece, the 11 min video is a great example of how interactive, even immersive visualizations can change how we consume and interact with information and with one another.
Apple created a video back in 1987 titled “Knowledge Navigator” which seemed similarly futuristic at the time. Today, 25 years later, the iPad is in common use. Interactive touch screens have become the norm for smart phones since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, just 5 years ago. Larger form factors exist, but are still expensive to build.
Regardless of how long it will take for touch screen displays to get bigger and become ubiquitous, the notion of interactive data visualization will only become more valuable.
visualign 