Now You See 'Em, Now You Don't

Associated Press
04:12 PM Jan. 14, 2004 PT

PARK CITY, Utah -- It looks like any of the other stately houses here -- nestled in the snowcapped hills, up narrow winding roads and past a slow wooden gate.

But what makes the two-story, 6,000-square-foot home different from any other is what's inside -- the windows. They turn from clear to opaque white with the push of a button. Many double as speakers, computer monitors or television sets.

Not all of them are fashioned to handle such elaborate tasks. But what the mundane windows lack in technological wizardry is more than compensated for by their abundance.

The home is full of them. On the roof, between rooms and standing in for countless feet of wallboard as an integral part of the building's structure. They are stacked on top of one another in bathrooms, bedrooms and in 30-foot-high combinations at the house's front.

Some rooms can draw in sunlight from all four walls. The house's entire span is visible, if one wants it to be, from one end to the other at almost any vantage point.

This concept car, of sorts, for houses was produced by privately held Andersen Windows of Bayport, Minnesota, and media giant Time Warner.

The home is a showcase Andersen will use to lure new, well-heeled clients. It's scheduled to be unveiled Thursday to coincide with the annual Sundance Film Festival. The Associated Press was offered a sneak peek a week early.

Andersen hasn't set a price for the windows yet, and won't reveal specifically how much the $1 million-plus prototype house cost because officials consider it a research project.

The exotic windows resemble those you'd see in a normal house -- until they change colors or start showing the latest Friends episode.

The windows are fitted with a microfiber LCD screen, which can make them opaque or display light from a television projector. The computer monitor is fully integrated into the window, allowing it to receive and display information without projection. It can even handle touch-screen commands.

Officials say the speakers are high-fidelity, while the television mode offers a high-resolution picture.

"I knew the technology was available, but it's so expensive that the fact that someone's actually applying it is what's amazing," said Jim Benney, executive director of the National Fenestration Rating Council, an industry group that assesses windows and doors.

Another point of the project was to suggest what could be done with residential architecture to open homes up, while also maintaining privacy.

The house, which took about a year to construct, was designed not from floor plans, but from "wall plans," said architect Michael James Plautz. His idea was to move from a model of erecting walls and poking holes in them for windows to an effort to build an entire house around the windows.

Still, Andersen officials concede this costly abode might not be the "home of the future." But in a media-crazed world, television, radio and Internet windows might make their way into homes someday.

"We're a multitasking species. We want to do everything in every room," Plautz said. "We should expect our windows to do the same."

That is a pretty cool idea, it would save alot of space, amazing how the electronics can be incorperated and the window can still be seen through.
I remember a thing that had back in the 80s they were LCD windows that when a current passed throught them went a dark shade to provide privacy of block out the sun etc. As long as there is power that is.

unless some kids throw a rock at your windows [img]tongue.gif[/img] . that would break someones wallet.