April 21, 2022

Here's how your next Zoom meeting might take place on the windows of your building

Photo courtesy of View Inc. [enlarge]

View Immersive Display windows have touchscreen ability, allowing users to get work done while seeing the outside world.

As COVID mandates recede and American workers return to offices, View Inc. is hoping to redefine how and where we work in the office.

The Milpitas, California, company known for its “smart” glass products recently began installing View Immersive Display glass in local residential and commercial buildings, with the goal of changing the way residents and workers interact with digital displays.

Immersive Display allows users to turn their windows into the equivalent of an iPad or tablet — an interactive digital display integrated in a smart glass window that allows users a new way to digest multi-media content.

While most office workers can turn to their desktop computers, tablets, smartphones or boardroom digital projectors to work and create, Immersive Display gives them the option of looking outside while also taking in digital presentations.

A benchmark for success of new products is whether they can resolve an issue. With Immersive Display, the challenge of how to liven-up a building's view has been addressed, according to Rahul Bammi, chief business officer at View.

“View Immersive Experience transforms a smart window into an interactive, transparent, digital, high-definition display — the window can display high-definition video and content while still giving people a view of the outside,” said Bammi. “Think of the displays in ‘Minority Report' or ‘Blade Runner.'”

“Blade Runner,” Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic, blew more than a few minds with its forerunner to FaceTime (video calls) and smart glass (self-tinting) windows. Bammi said View, whose smart windows also maximize daylight or control glare, gives users “a window into the future.”

“View Immersive Experiences are installed in both office and residential settings in the Northwest, including Amazon's new office in Redmond, and Parque Kirkland,” he said. “Other buildings currently under construction also feature the technology, but those buildings haven't been publicly announced yet.”

Bammi said his company's smart windows “uniquely have the ability to provide data, power, dynamic adjustment for optimal contrast, and UV protection to transparent displays, while still maintaining a view that provides the ‘wow' experience.”

Immersive Display windows are large-format (55 inches and larger), digital, high-definition, interactive canvases that can be used to broadcast content, host video calls and display information and digital art to large groups of people, while maintaining a view of the outdoors through the window on which it is mounted.

“The transparency of the display gives it the perception of depth through the smart window and makes it truly immersive, hence, the name,” he said. “By contrast, a laptop or handheld can display a limited amount of information, typically to a single user, on a flat, opaque surface.”

Whether users are looking at the Olympic Mountains or an office parking lot, Bammi said Immersive Display gives them a new option. The glass allows users to take notes and create content by writing on touch-enabled surfaces, meeting virtually on the windows and staying connected to the outdoors with digitally augmented views. Bored looking at parking lots or cityscapes? Immersive Display will add butterflies or mountain streams in one swipe, according to the company.

John Schoettler, vice president of global real estate and facilities for Amazon, said in a press release: “Our offices provide important spaces for employees to come together to collaborate and invent on behalf of our customers. Innovative solutions like View Smart Windows will help us create modern working environments that prioritize employee wellness and increase the enjoyability of the office environment, all while reducing our carbon footprint.”

View's smart windows have been installed in multifamily developments, offices and health care facilities. “Our smart windows,” Bammi said, “also adjust to the sun and outdoor conditions in order to modulate the amount of light and heat that enter a building, ensuring that spaces are both more comfortable for people, with the optimal amount of light, and more energy efficient.”

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