Hacker News Reader

Comment by fnordpiglet | Hacker News Reader

I feel like this would be very useful in architecture, hiding things like heat pumps without disguising the structure behind by erecting barriers and that sort of thing. Or at events disguising rigging for lighting and whatnot. In my day to day life I rarely need to hide, but I can see lots of applications where hiding fixed objects without disrupting the scenery is a benefit.

View on HN

> but I can see lots of applications where hiding fixed objects without disrupting the scenery is a benefit.

Don’t get too excited: It only diffuses light horizontally, so if the scenery consists of anything other than horizontal lines or the viewers aren’t exactly viewing at the right angle, it’s not going to be much of an illusion. More of a blurry horizontal averaging of what’s behind it.

Yes I get it but it’s also like an adaptive camouflage- while it’s not perfect it is a lot better than a bunch of rigging and wires.

Okay? So use it to hide stuff with scenery featuring horizontal lines. Why are you looking for so many reasons for it to fail?

If you’re building the scenery to custom specifications, why not just put the scenery in front of the thing you’re trying to hide?

It also doesn’t work off angle, won’t look good when dirty, will weather poorly, and so on.

It’s not a realistic solution for hiding things outdoors long term. It’s a party trick.

You can also turn it 90 degrees to hide horizontal details in front of vertical ones

interesting

I'd love to use this for windows in a downtown office. You can get ambient light and a general sense of the outside atmosphere, but with the added benefit of privacy and seeing fewer people walking by.

Isn’t that a problem that’s already solved by one way mirrors? Light can still come in, you can see from the inside out but people on the outside can’t look inside.

Added bonus of seeing some hilarious faces because some people treat those as normal mirrors and don’t realize there are people on the other side.

It’s less about people seeing you - does it actually matter? It’s about seeing people see you. That can feel uncomfortable even it has no consequence that they saw you. By giving you a perception of the scene without people it can feel more comfortable than a blank wall or people walking past.

They don't work if hidden side is brighter than the public side. So not at night.

Isn't this what frosted windows are for?

Frosted window film is much cheaper and easier.

If you want to get fancy, you can layer the frosted film over variably tinting film and it'll regulate the light coming in.

I wonder what's the light transmission of frosted film vs lenticular film.

It would be excellent in stage design as well. I can also picture touring bands buying up three or four of these things to hide (obscure might be a better word) their kluges during setup.

There could be so many uses for this!

- Art installations

- Cell phone towers

- Building materials

- Clothing / fashion

- Stage and Halloween costumes

- Marketing and brand displays

- Children and pet toys

- Cabling

- Tools for naturalist observation

- Furniture and household art pieces

- Hiding large waste receptacles and other visual nuisances

i imagine it's not the best option for permanent fixtures compared to barriers. if it works well in a semicircle or hemispherical shape for viewers along at different angles than it might be cheaper. mass producing it also may make it easier and cheaper than painting something one-off to match a static background. agree completely on the value for anything temporary.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com