[Report] Weather Forecast on Subway Window... LGD's 'Transparent OLED' Bringing the Future Closer

Viewing LG Display's 'Transparent Future Exhibition' on the 22nd
Applied to Mobility, Office Spaces, Home Interior, and Digital Art

The subway window featuring LG Display's transparent OLED technology displays weather forecasts for each city.
[Photo by Han Yeju]

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Yeju] #. On subway screen doors equipped with 'transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED),' information indicating that the train will arrive within 15 seconds appears. The congestion level of each car is shown in red, yellow, and green, allowing passengers to move to relatively less crowded cars and board the train. The subway windows display the weather for each city. The weather forecast, harmonized with the city's scenery including precipitation and wind speed, captures attention.

LG Display's transparent OLED brings the future we imagine closer. The vaguely perceived future technology becomes concrete through transparent OLED. Transparent OLED is being applied in various everyday spaces such as mobility including subways, office spaces, and digital art. This is why LG Display is putting all its efforts into this market, which is expected to grow to a scale of 12 trillion won by 2030.

On the 22nd, I visited LG Display's exhibition titled 'Transparent Future Exhibition: The City, Industry, and Art Changed by Transparent OLED' held at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Gwanghwamun.

Transparent OLED is a technology that maximizes the advantages of OLED, which emits light by itself. It has high transparency enough to replace conventional glass windows, while being thin and light, making it highly versatile in various fields. It has the advantage of enabling efficient space utilization by naturally displaying various information and graphics on the screen while simultaneously viewing objects behind the screen.

When LG Display's transparent OLED technology was applied to subway screen doors, it became possible to check the congestion level of each car by color.
[Photo by Han Yeju]

At the exhibition space, various applications of transparent OLED in different spaces could be seen. The most eye-catching were products that replaced glass with transparent OLED for car or subway windows. They feature the ability to provide information appropriate to the situation depending on the place and time, effectively implementing augmented reality (AR) where objects seen through the glass and content are combined. Currently, it is most actively used in subways and similar settings. Since 2020, LG Display has supplied transparent OLED for passenger car windows to subways in major cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, and Fuzhou in China, as well as to the JR East Japan sightseeing train.

In office spaces, transparent OLED can increase space utilization. When the glass windows or partitions of office exteriors are made with transparent OLED, it allows viewing an open panorama while also being used for video conferencing, presentations, entertainment, and other purposes. It also saves space previously occupied by TVs and monitors, creating a sense of openness.

In digital art, transparent screens can deliver messages to the audience in new ways, increasing attention. When applied to shopping malls, transparent OLED can be used as a 'transparent showcase.' Customers can simultaneously see products placed behind the display and digital information, providing a richer shopping experience. Integration with AR (augmented reality) technology is also possible, such as intuitive touch operations for product customization simulations.

LG Display's transparent OLED technology is also being utilized in the digital art world.
Photo by Han Yeju

LG Display is the only company in the world producing large transparent OLEDs. In 2019, LG Display commercialized the world's first 55-inch transparent OLED with 40% transparency. The transparent OLED market is expected to continue growing. Global consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) forecasted that the global transparent OLED market size will expand from 100 billion won in 2022 to 3 trillion won in 2025, and 12 trillion won by 2030.

An LG Display official said, "The transparent OLED technology that only LG Display possesses has very high scalability," adding, "We hope to grow the industry together with Korea's materials, parts, and equipment companies."