For som years ago i wrote about "the Inteligent Aluminum" Its was topsecret story I found on the internet (proberly a mistake..)
(I told about it the old forum,(2005) but I can not not find the story and the "secret" link!) maybe others have better luck?
Now, at last, B&O are ready to use thea avance tecnnology. They have made it together with DTU http://www.dtu.dk/
I could bee for the next generation of mobilephones?
As i say, when I first heard about the idea, then will af phone made of one piece af blank aluminium look great, and I still think its will be a piece of art.
On danish http://ing.dk/artikel/85452?nyhedsbrev
Bang & Olufsen a/s has been working with ideas for invisible integration of displays in metal surfaces. Invisible integration of information displays traditionally has been possible by placing displays behind transparent or semitransparent materials such as plastic or glass.
The wish for an integrated display in a metal surface is often ruled by design and functionality of a product. The integration of displays in metal surfaces requires metal removal in order to clear the area of the display to some extent.
The idea behind an invisible display in Aluminum concerns the processing of a metal workpiece in such a way that micro cavities are formed from the backside of the workpiece. The micro cavities must not penetrate the metal front side, but an ultra-thin layer of metal is left. It is possible to shine light through this layer.
By ordering micro cavities in a matrix, different symbols can be obtained by shining light from the backside of the workpiece. When there is no light from the backside, the front surface seems totally untouched. This was achieved by laser ablation with ultra-short pulses