Tungsten Oxide Smart Glass in Popular Culture

In tungsten oxide smart glass, the electrochromic material changes its opacity: it changes between a colored, translucent state (usually blue) and a transparent state. A burst of electricity is required for changing its opacity, but once the change has been effected, no electricity is needed for maintaining the particular shade which has been reached. Darkening occurs from the edges, moving inward, and is a slow process, ranging from many seconds to several minutes depending on window size.

Electrochromic glass provides visibility even in the darkened state and thus preserves visible contact with the outside environment. It has been used in small-scale applications such as rearview mirrors. Electrochromic technology also finds use in indoor applications, for example, for protection of objects under the glass of museum display cases and picture frame glass from the damaging effects of the UV and visible wavelengths of artificial light.

Tungsten oxide smart glass with electrochromic property has not only been applied in our daily life, but becomes popular in culture like movie and TV series in recent years.

1.The 1982 film Blade Runner contains an early depiction of smart glass in a scene in which a room is darkened with a smart glass-like shade so Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, can administer a polygraph-style test to determine whether Rachael, portrayed by Sean Young, is an organic robot known as a replicant.

2.The 1993 film Philadelphia features a scene in which a large conference room in the middle of the law firm has walls of glass on three sides. Jason Robards says, "Bill, will you get the windows?", and a switch is thrown, and all the windows immediately become translucent, so that no one can see them firing Tom Hanks' character.

3.Smart glass is seen in the 2002 motion picture The Sum of all Fears, in which Jack Ryan, played by Ben Affleck, is ushered into a secret room in the Pentagon, the windows of which whiten over as the door is shut.

4.Smart glass can be seen in the third season of the television series 24, where Jack Bauer changed the visibility to frosted glass to conceal the view as he was injecting heroin.

5.Smart glass is mentioned in Season Three, Episode Five of CSI:Miami, entitled "Legal", in which a young lady working undercover to expose underage drinking is murdered in a room shielded by what Ryan Wolfe refers to as "intelligent glass", where closing the door completes an electrical circuit, making the glass frost over and become opaque. The episode first aired in 2004.

6.Smart glass is seen in the television series Lie To Me with the interrogation/interview room at the Lightman Group offices consisting of what amounts to a room-sized box within a larger room, with smart glass walls. The walls appear to be white and opaque most of the time, but can be rendered clear to reveal those observing a subject from the outside.

7.Smart glass was featured in 2005 video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory in a fifth mission Displace International, enabling the main character to quickly switch between on and off modes with his OCP pistol attachment.

8.Smart glass is seen in use in White Collar season 1 episode 8 "Hard Sell" when Neal comes to tell Daniel Reed that Avery plans to betray him. Daniel flips a switch and his office window becomes frosted over, preventing Avery from peeking inside while they talk.

9.Smart glass was featured in the 2012 James Bond movie Skyfall, revealing Raoul Silva to M after he's captured.

10.Smart glass was used in the bathroom in the Real World: Austin.

11.Dimmable smart glass was featured in the 2014 film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, in the S.H.I.E.L.D. office in Washington, D.C.

12.Smart glass was featured in the 2014 animated feature Big Hero 6, used by Tadashi Hamada for his office.