Transparent Interface
The transparent display Rælclear*1 is a device that reduces the communication barrier.
1. What is Rælclear?
The transparent interface Rælclear is a liquid crystal display realized by JDI's advanced technology which can display contents without using the backlight. It is a monitor with 84% transmissivity, which is realized by combining it with a power supply, drive circuit and HDMI interface. The projected image can be viewed clearly from both sides (front and back).
2. Background
In recent years, in a society where diversity is emphasized, the importance of communication is increasing. In general, when people communicate with each other, spoken words are combined with visual information, such as facial expressions and gestures, to understand what the speaker is saying or thinking. On the other hand, for example, deaf people and the hard of hearing have difficulty hearing voices, so they use lip reading and sign language to communicate. However, owing to the coronavirus outbreak, they cannot read lips because people are wearing masks, and because the number of people who can use sign language is limited, communication is becoming more difficult than ever.
There are transcription apps for smartphones and tablets that display words in text as an alternative means of communication, but because you look at the screen that displays the text, your gaze is turned away from the speaker’s face. Thus, until now, there was no way for deaf people and the hard of hearing to check the speaker’s facial expression while looking at the text.
3. Solving issues*2 using Rælclear
Set the transparent interface Rælclear between you and the person facing you and activate the transcription system*3. When you speak to the person facing you, the voice input through the microphone to the PC or tablet is transcribed and displayed on the second monitor, Rælclear.
Since the display is highly transparent and you can view images from both front and back, you can read the transcribed content of the conversation while looking at the facial expression as you speak, improving the understanding of the listener. Furthermore, using a speech transcription system with translational capabilities*3, face-to-face communication between different languages is also possible.
4. Features of transparent display monitor Rælclear
The transparent display monitor Rælclear is a revolutionary device with the following features:
Feature 1: High transparency allows the user to see the speaker’s expression through the display.
Conventional liquid crystal displays require a backlight on the back of the LCD panel preventing users from seeing the speaker’s expression through the display.
Our transparent display monitor Rælclear adopts proprietary technology to successfully remove not only the backlight but also the polarizer, and has an extremely high transmissivity of 84%, providing glass-like transparency.
Feature 2: Since it can be seen from both front and back, the speaker can check the content which the listener is seeing.
With our transparent display technology, pixels emit light in all directions. Thus, there is no viewing angle, which is a phenomenon peculiar to liquid crystal displays. This means that images can be clearly recognized from both front and back of the display, allowing the speaker to see what was said on the spot.
*When you look at the display from the back, the text flips.
Feature 3: Simple configuration
The transparent display monitor Rælclear has a very simple design consisting of only an HDMI interface and a power supply. Just plug in the AC adapter and connect Ralclear to your PC via HDMI and it will work as a second monitor, making it very easy-to-use product. In addition, it is light weighing only around 1.1kg, making it convenient to carry around.
5. Rælclear specification overview
| Product dimensions | 351mm(H) × 201mm(V) × 120mm(D) |
|---|---|
| Weight | 1.1kg (excluding AC adapter) |
| Number of pixels | 1440(H) × 540(V) |
| Display size | 291.6mm(H) × 109.35mm(V) |
| Number of colors | 4,096 Colors |
| Touch panel | Not supported |
| Connection | HDMI Type-A |
| Power input | USB PD complied (45W/60W/100W) AC adapter is not included in this product |
| Country of production | Japan |
Please click here to download the user's manual.
*1 Rælclear’s “a” uses a phonetic symbol instead of “a” and “e”. Ralclear is a trademark of Japan Display Inc.
*2 To solve the issues, the research group led by Associate Professor Yoichi Ochiai, Digital Nature Laboratory at the University of Tsukuba, and JDI jointly developed “See-Through Captions”.
See-Through Captions Project page
https://digitalnature.slis.tsukuba.ac.jp/2021/02/see-through-captions/
Kenta Yamamoto, Ippei Suzuki, Akihisa Shitara, and Yoichi Ochiai. 2021. See-Through Captions: Real-Time Captioning on Transparent Display for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People.
In The 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’21).
https://assets21.sigaccess.org/accepted_posters.html
*3 Transcription system software, PC, tablet, etc., must be prepared separately by the customer.
*4 Devices to be connected (Please use the latest OS version of the device.)
PC: Windows, Mac
Smart Phone, Tablet : iPhone, iPad (Not compatible with Android)
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