In the next few years, window manufacturers may be incorporating futuristic technology that could make shades and blinds obsolete. Smart glass technology, developed by Research Frontiers Inc., allows users to control the passage of light through glass and plastic electronically.
The technology allows glass to change from fully tinted to completely clear with an electronic charge. A film is placed between two panes of treated glass or plastic, and the charge allows more or less light to pass through depending on how much charge is applied.
| Smart glass technology allows glass to change from fully tinted to completely clear with an electronic charge. Windows that use this technology should be available in the next few years.
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RFI executive vice president, Joseph Harary, anticipates that windows with this technology will be available in the next few years, and that products will be incorporated into both new construction and remodeling applications. "We've set it up so that the average electrician should have no problem with this. The electricity is already running through the walls of a home. It would install just like [a regular] window, with the same type of mechanisms and some wiring hooking up to the frame," he says.
The smart glass can effectively emulate the benefits of most window treatments, including energy conservation, UV ray protection, prevention of sun-related fading of interior materials, privacy and security.