Taiwanese glass and display maker Polytron proposes the next step in mobile devices-- science fiction-style quasi-transparent touchscreen devices.
As seen on the website Mobile Geeks, the invisible smartphone is made from two sheets of Polyvision Smart Glass, an opaque privacy glass that turns transparent with the application of an electrical current.
The technology uses liquid crystal molecules that are randomly oriented when the power is off (scattering light hitting the glass) but line up (allowing light to pass through) when the power is on.
Between the two glass layers are microscopic circuitry too small for the naked eye to see and non-transparent components such as batteries, SIM card, SD card, camera, speaker and microphone, even if the demo device lacks an actual operating system or software.
The technology is still at a very early stage, but the company hopes it will have working samples available for OEMs by end 2013.
Polytron is not the only company working on transparent mobile devices-- Fujitsu and NTT Docomo also have an Android device with a transparent double-sided touchscreen interface in the works.
Watch Transparent Smartphone Prototype by Polytron Hands On (Mobile Geeks)
Go Polytron
Developers should have access to the operating system (as optimised for the Galaxy Nexus handset) even sooner-- by end February 2013. 
It carries a 1.4GHz processor, 2150mAh battery, 1GB RAM and 8GB built-in storage (expandable via microSD slot), as well as 1.3MP front- and 8MP rear-facing cameras. 
LG France Director of Mobile Communication Cathy Robins tells Challenges.fr Nexus 4 demand in countries including the UK and Germany is 10X higher than initial orders. 
Designed to be always-on, the low power EPD shows anything from social media information and reminders to eBook files and images. An interesting application seen at CES is having EPD display a static map while the device is actually off.
